5/02/2024

Apple and Foxconn in India, making and selling iPhones to Indians

 It is claimed by one particular hardcore anti-China social media site that Apple's move out of China is picking up speed. And with that, Foxconn needed to cut production and laying off workers like no tomorrow in China. Is that really going to hurt China?

For every Western entity moving out of China, there are dozens of Chinese new manufacturing setups ready to take its place. All in new tech or high-tech sectors, not laundry shops or soap kitchen setups. Huawei and Xiaomi have even branched into making EVs, away from their traditional area of making telecommunication equipment and systems, smartphones and also chips. That is how innovative Chinese companies have become.

Apple tried for decades to make EVs and failed miserably and had to abandon the idea. So, do understand that even Apple is not infallible and also subject to failures. Either that or it has now come to realize that it has chosen 'the wrong tree to bark at', knowing that it cannot compete with China in EVs after all.

And remember that those entities that left China not only will lose their footprints in China, after decades of hard work setting them up, but they will also lose the Chinese market as well for good. On top of that they now have to compete with China in the global market if they were to move back to the USA or Europe, where production cost is multiple times that of China.

China is expanding its priority and pouring its resource into new energy manufacturing, that can absorb the skilled workers laid off by Foxconn and others. Foxconn is not the only assembly plant for Apple employing workers in China. Luxshare Precision Industry is also another Apple assembly partner in China. There are so many smartphone players in China that are well known around the world, and they need skilled workers as well as they expand their production.

Apple and Foxconn can enjoy themselves in India, trying out the Indian rope trick, and hanging themselves in the process. They can keep massaging their own ego and believe in their illusion that they are expanding their footprints in India, when they are clearly constrained by skilled workers and engineering talents. Apple's iPhone sales is facing headwinds, not improving with the India move so far. iPhones made in India have been rejected in Europe and Chinese buyers are refraining from touching them. Apart from that, the Chinese Government is phasing out iPhone usage in Government entities.

The only consolation for Apple and Foxconn is that can continue with their agenda of paying 'slave wages' to Indian workers to make bigger profits. And for that, the USA and the West will not say a word. That is their 'double standard' practice, culled from their playbook.

Anonymous

4 comments:

  1. Not to worry, sillyporean like to eat fruit. India apple are more than welcome here with the help with our miw in the way ceca are welcomed. We already makan a big pineapple that come with a jap peach. So waiting for more Apple import.

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  2. Apple is selling its iPhones as a premium product with premium prices. Now it is made by poorly educated and poorly trained substandard workers. What kind of quality would the iPhones Make in India be?

    Would Rolls Royce relocate to India to make its premium cars?

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  3. Classic case of shiok sendiri or tar fei kei. Just spare the innocent lizards on the ceiling.

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  4. Let us be honest. China is moving up the technology chain and not just content to be an iPhone assembling hub forever, with workers making pittance out of assembling iPhones, while Apple laughs all the way to the bank. China is not content to let its citizens be paid 'slave wages' to make products for freeloading by the perpetrators of the 'slave wages' mantra.

    China's supply chain for smartphones does not serve Apple alone. There are dozens of smartphone manufacturers in China, all Chinese brands at that, that can source their inputs from the supply chain down the road. The USA is forcing Apple to decouple from China's supply chain, so what is the point of fretting over Apple's eventual departure, even if it does happen.

    China is placing priority in overcoming its chip sector reliance on the West, Japan and South Korea. China is ready to fight its battle against the 'Chips Alliance'. Not only in chips manufacturing, but China is also going into chip making equipment like lithography machines and selling them cheap to make ASML uncompetitive.

    Another area that China is moving into is aviation, one that China has yet to have a foothold to counter the likes of Boeing and Airbus. The falling fortune and reputation of Boeing is a good opportunity for China, the right place and the right time to take advantage. It will be difficult no doubt, but not impossible. Impossible is not in the vocabulary of the Chinese. They now have a space station, a Beidou satellite mapping system for its miliary, satellites circling the moon, have been to the moon and have landed a probe on Mars, are the frontrunner in high-speed railway construction that are in demand around the world, and helping to lift countries out of poverty.

    That is where China is moving, not in the least worrying trend about Apple's move to India.

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