After Cook’s confirmation that Apple would indeed be moving an entire Mac line to the US for production, there was much speculation about which product he meant. Most, including me, assumed that he was referring to the Mac Pro.
Not so, according to Digitimes; instead, Apple is supposedly shifting the production of the Mac Mini to the US. (more…)
Earlier this week, it was speculated that perhaps Apple has moved some of its manufacturing to the United States after some users discovered that their new iMacs had “Assembled in USA” etched on the back of the all-in-one desktop computer.
As it turns out, that speculation was correct. Leading up to his interview with Brian Williams, set to air on NBC tonight at 10 PM Eastern, Tim Cook has revealed that Apple will shift one of its entire Mac lineups to the United States in terms of manufacturing. It will cost the company over $100 million.
As per Bloomberg Businessweek:
And next year we are going to bring some production to the U.S. on the Mac. We’ve been working on this for a long time, and we were getting closer to it. It will happen in 2013. We’re really proud of it. We could have quickly maybe done just assembly, but it’s broader because we wanted to do something more substantial. So we’ll literally invest over $100 million. This doesn’t mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people, and we’ll be investing our money.
This move follows the high amount of criticism that Apple has received over the past year for its overseas manufacturing operations, particularly the claimed poor working conditions at its manufacturing partner Foxconn’s facilities in mainland China. (more…)
iPhone 5 Manufactured With Backwards Volume Keys
Perhaps this is a Foxconn employee’s idea of trolling. Quality control at its finest.
During his inaugural speech at the new Foxconn headquarters in Shanghai, China, the chairman of the manufacturing company Terry Gou specifically confirmed plans for an Apple television set. According to China Daily (via How To Arena), Gou explicitly claimed that Foxconn is collaborating with Apple to launch a new HDTV set in the television market. Gou might have also indirectly revealed the name of Apple’s upcoming television set, referring to it as the “iTV” on numerous occasions. (more…)
The Brazilian city of Jundiai has paid tribute to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs by renaming one of its streets to “Steve Jobs Avenue,” says Cult of Mac. The street in particular connects the smaller city of Jundiai with Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. Moreover, it is the same street that Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn plans to build its new iPad assembly plant.
The Jundiai city council proposed the street name change last October, the day after Jobs passed away, and the request was approved on March 27. Foxconn already operates an iPhone manufacturing factory in Brazil, evidenced by “made in Brazil” iPhones that have surfaced in the last few months.
[Cult of Mac via CNET]
Apple and Foxconn have both agreed to work on reducing the number of labor violations that occur at the iPhone maker’s overseas supply chain. These violations, including excessive working hours, low wages, unpaid overtime, and health concerns, were discovered by the Fair Labor Association after their Apple-requested audit of Foxconn’s manufacturing plants in China. While improved working conditions are certainly looked at as something positive, not all Foxconn workers are too happy about the anticipated changes. (more…)
Last month, Apple called upon the Fair Labor Association to perform an audit on its overseas manufacturer Foxconn after several months of scrutiny regarding unfair working conditions. Today, the non-profit labor organization has shared the results of its investigation, and there are a number of different labor violations as expected.
The violations primarily relate to excessive working hours, low wages, unpaid overtime, and health concerns. The good news, however, is that there does not appear to be any underage workers employed by Foxconn, nor do the manufacturing plants resemble sweatshops. Working conditions at Foxconn are better than most people think, and don’t come close to the fabricated story told by dramatist Mike Daisey. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of improvements that need to be made. (more…)
Last week, U.S. radio show The American Life retracted a story about the harsh working conditions of Apple’s manufacturing employees at overseas supplier Foxconn, based largely on the show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by American author and dramatist Mike Daisey. The radio program discovered that numerous parts of Daisey’s reports about Foxconn and its employees were greatly exaggerated or even partially fabricated altogether.
As reported by Reuters, Apple’s primary overseas manufacturer Foxconn says that it does not currently plan to seek any legal action against the radio program or any other American publications despite severely hurting the reputation of the Chinese company… (more…)