Monday, October 08, 2012

What's really going on at Apple's iPhone 5 factory in Zhengzhou, China - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech:

As we say, the truth of what happened probably lies somewhere between the two accounts. It sounds like Apple was trying to produce iPhone 5s fast enough to meet demand without compromising its exacting quality standards, which can't be easy.

But the fact that there was any organized labor activity on Foxconn's iPhone assembly line suggests that deeper forces are at play. The days that electronics manufacturers from industrialized countries -- not just Apple (AAPL), but Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett Packard (HPQ), DELL (DELL), Amazon (AMZN), Sony (SNE) and even Samsung -- can count on boundless supplies of cheap, compliant Asian factory workers may be numbered.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, this may not be the end, or even the beginning of the end, but it may, perhaps, be the end of the beginning.
at 10:43 AM