http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPYro...ure=plpp_video
It's very clever and quite funny. Worth a watch.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPYro...ure=plpp_video
It's very clever and quite funny. Worth a watch.
You so love Apple, don't you?
.
LOL :lol:
Apple currently being presented with large petitions around the world asking for ethical practises in their Chinese factories. Some horror stories coming out of those places which should send shudders through the Apple community ... oh wait the vast majority of those people are spoilt teens wanting the latest fashion accessory in the form of an iPad, iPhone, iDildo, iWhatever.
i-Evil Corporation comes to mind ;)
They probably threaten to call Immigration on their underpaid illegal alien domestic servants daily too.
I love Apple products, although out of curiosity I'd ask why you'd say that relating to the video? It's not exactly praising Apple lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee
It's not Apple's fault that any of that is happening. The fault lies with those running the facilities. Apple's doing more and more to try and prevent incidents at these facilities, they've increased their inspections per year to ~250 from ~110 last year, and they've even joined the FLA which will be doing their own independent checks of these facilities too.Quote:
Originally Posted by KiwiDexter
WHAT !!!Quote:
It's not Apple's fault that any of that is happening. The fault lies with those running the facilities. Apple's doing more and more to try and prevent incidents at these facilities
Of course it is or at the very least they are complicit, it is naive to suggest anything else, Apple doesn't have to use those suppliers it does so because they are cheap and it increases there profit margin.
I totally agree with that video, there is nothing special about apple, they just have polished products with an over simplistic UI that any idiot can use.(and have a massive profit margin on these products)
Apple could end those abuses in a day, if it so chose. They have so much clout that if they increased inspections, and demanded a certain level of compliance, they would get it. However, the story is not entirely one sided. As abusive as those company practices are, the worker population, as a whole, ultimately benefits. Naturally, it shouldn't be necessary to go through hell to get to a better place, as the Chinese workers are currently doing, but at the very least, they now have a path to get to a better place, which they wouldn't have otherwise. The unfortunate reality is that the abusive practices eventually pull up the standard of living for all the abused, though possibly not until the next generation.
Having said that, Apple could end the abuses today, and it should. It is one of the most profitable companies in the world. Furthermore, its customers are willing to pay extra for the devices. This means that Apple could afford higher prices on the goods if that was the cost of imposing better standards on their suppliers.
They do have to use those suppliers, Foxconn is the only facility capable of producing Apple products in such large volume, and in fact, it actually isn't enough, Foxconn is investing 1 billion and collaborating with the Chinese Government to make another facility solely for the production of Apple products. I heard they're hiring about 100,000 people as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeedSomeAnswers
And who else would they use? Are you suggesting that they have it done in the US? That's not possible.
That aside, it's not only Apple who uses Foxconn, all of Apple's competition use them, Intel, Amazon, and many, many others. It's not Apple's fault at all, they're only being targeted now because Apple has become so huge.
They have already increased inspections per year, greatly in fact, from about 110 in 2010, to over 250 in 2011, and they've joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) which will also be doing their own independent inspections.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
What else do you expect of them? What else can they do? Threaten to pull out? They couldn't do that if they wanted to, there's no where else for them to go that's big enough to handle the amount of products they get produced. And if they did pull out, tens, if not hundreds of thousands, would lose their jobs.
As I mentioned above, Apple isn't the only company using Foxconn. All the major players use it, Amazon, Intel, Samsung, and many others.
It's not the responsibility of Apple, or any other company, to fix the working conditions in China. All they can really do is inspect the facilities and make sure that these facilities aren't cutting corners. There's no other but the Chinese Government that's responsible, and only they can truly improve the lives of the workers, and that's only by passing laws for increased pay.
China is not a company. Apple could certainly pull out because there are other companies in China that could meet their demands. Of course, it wouldn't come to that, because the suppliers are MUCH more dependent on Apple than Apple is dependent on them, and both sides know it. That's why Apple can increase their inspections. The suppliers would stand on their heads if that's what Apple wanted them to do (which makes them much like Apple's customer base).
Actually there aren't any companies large enough to handle all the demand from Apple, Foxconn is the largest in China, and the next below it in Apple's chain is Pegatron and they sometimes struggle to keep up with demand of the small portion of work Apple gives them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
I'd say it's actually the opposite, that Apple needs Foxconn a lot more than Foxconn needs Apple. If Apple pulls out Foxconn still has many, many other clients, however there's no alternative company that Apple can use to produce it's products, even Pegatron can't handle more than 10% of Apple's work load, they'd have to find quite a few other companies in China to handle it, and even then I doubt more than 50% of Apple's demand could be met, at best, and because it's split over many suppliers, higher costs for Apple, too.
Here's a couple of quotes from Wiki:
Quote:
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (trading as Foxconn) is a multinational electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan. It is the world's-largest maker of electronic components[3] including printed circuit boards.[4]
Foxconn is primarily an original design manufacturer and its clients include American, European and Japanese companies. Notable products which the company manufactures include the Kindle, iPad,[5] iPhone,[6] PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. Foxconn is the largest exporter in Greater China and the second-largest in the Czech Republic.[7]
Foxconn has been involved in several controversies – most relating to how it manages employees in China, where it is the largest private employer.
In short, they assemble 40% of all consumer electronics in the world, and they're the biggest consumer electronics company in the world, and also the largest private employer in all of China. They're huge, and they're Apple's only choice if they want to be able to sell lots of products -- even Pegatron, as I said, can't keep up with demand with only about 10% of the work, yet Foxconn does better with 90%.Quote:
Foxconn currently has factories in Asia, Europe and South America, which together assemble around 40 percent of consumer electronics products in the world.[11]
[edit]China
Workers at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen
Foxconn has 13 factories in nine Chinese cities, more than in any other country.[12]
Foxconn's largest factory worldwide is in Longhua, Shenzhen, where hundreds of thousands of workers (varying counts include 230,000,[11] 300,000,[13] and 450,000[2]) are employed at the Longhua Science & Technology Park, a walled campus[6] sometimes referred to as "Foxconn City"[14] or "iPod City".[15] Covering about 1.16 square miles (3 square km),[16] it includes 15 factories,[14] worker dormitories, a swimming pool,[17] a fire brigade,[6] its own television network (Foxconn TV),[6] and a downtown complete with a grocery store, bank, restaurants, bookstore, and hospital.[6] While some workers live in surrounding towns and villages, others live and work inside the complex;[18] a quarter of the employees live in the dormitories, and many of them work 12-hour days for 6 days each week.[11]
Foxconn continues to expand and planned factory sites include at Chengdu in Sichuan province, Wuhan in Hubei province, and Zhengzhou in Henan province.[12]
Apple contracts with Chinese industry such as Foxconn because it has easy access to the Chinese supply chain[11] within a well developed industrial cluster.[19] In addition, employees at overseas companies are thought to be more flexible, diligent, and skilled than American workers.[11]
Apple's a significant client and many would lose their jobs if they pulled out, but that isn't a reality. (I'm sure they'd get blamed for that, too.) There's also no doubt Apple would get better prices at Foxconn too, due to the sheer size of them.
Ehhh.....Taiwan is China???
It just says that's where their headquarters are.Quote:
Originally Posted by namrekka
I was a bit dazzled by all the information. After reading Wiki completly and the site of Foxconn it was much clearer.