Why are iPhones made in China?

By Erica / January 25, 2012 / Culture & Cultural Anthropology, The Mobile Web / 5 Comments

Who makes the products we use?

Apple has been trying to address the ongoing Foxconn suicides with increased transparency. Articles are simultaneously appearing that attempt to explain the migration of manufacturing jobs as being rooted less in wages (and the accompanying “cheap” products that go with low cost labour) and more in government regulations that facilitate the industry.

Here’s some of what’s being said.

• 1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?

• Foxconn Is Still a Hard Place to Work

• This American Life Podcast: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory [performance adapted from "The Agony & the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" and investigative report]

• Apple Sheds (Some) Light On Suppliers & Their Working Conditions

• Steve Jobs Freaked Out A Month Before First iPhone Was Released And Demanded A New Screen

• Apple, America & a Squeezed Middle Class: How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

• America’s Dirty War Against Manufacturing

• In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

• Introducing the iFactory (How Apple can fix Foxconn)

I have an iPhone, among other Apple products. I’d pay more for the next one so that people don’t have to be woken up in the middle of the night, given a cup of tea, and sent to work on an assembly line. Or maybe Apple—who made $400,000 in profit per employee last year—could kick in a little.

@ @ How do we create demand for socially just production if we don't talk about about bad conditions?
January 11, 2012 10:08 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
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  • Patrick

    Have you explored the opposite side on this issue? The side that points out that: The suicide rate among workers is much lower than among the general populous, that the work and pay are much, much better than what was there 15 years ago int he rice patties, that america is simply incapable of producing enough workers and engineers to actually build the phones?

  • Anonymous

    The story arch I’m creating with the order of the links is meant to tell “both” sides of the stories (or rather, all of the story).

    From bad conditions & suicides to Apple’s transparency, to economy op-eds describing the conditions necessary to hand-produce products at massive scale and speed. It’s all there.

    The last 3 pieces—”Steve Jobs Freaked Out”, NYT’s “How America lost out on iPhone work” & Bloomberg’s “America’s Dirty War Against Manufacturing” all highlight the skill strengths in China:

    “The end-to-end process of building the iPhones required 8,700 mid-level engineers. In the United States, Apple estimated, it would have taken 9 months to hire this many engineers. In China, it took 15 days.”

    But I don’t think conditions are better. While Mike Daisey was in Shenzhen doing the interviews for the This American Life podcast (a must-listen), a worker died after a 36-hr shift. People caught in unions go to jail. 

  • Patrick

    And apple’s to blame for this? Every major consumer electronics company on earth is connected to foxconn. Daisey’s story, while moving, is not a fact-checked piece of journalism. Hell, apple is more transparent about their worker conditions than most any of the tech giants.

    It’s not Apple’s job as a corporation to improve union rights in a maverick country of over a billion people. You should be mad at China.

  • Anonymous

    The second half of the podcast is devoted to fact-checking Daisey’s story, specifically because he’s not a journalist.

    I’m not mad at Apple nor particularly picking on them (the 4th link shows their transparency in releasing their factory audits), but they have a unique market (that includes me): people who get so frustrated when they can’t get the latest white iPhone or whatever. It’s the fans I’m speaking to, who are the force that can ask manufacturers to push for better standards. I know Xboxes etc are also made at Foxconn, but personally I use a $h1t-ton of Apple products so my own concern is there, with the products I’m buying & the brand I’m supporting. 

    And the trend I’m seeing seems to highlight Apple, probably because of the rabid demand of its fans.

  • Patrick

    We’re all so helpless in being able to push real change here that i’m assuming everyone is going to rationalize it with themselves like i am, and continue to play with their gadgets as usual