Saturday
Feb252012
Would you pay £1,000 for your smartphone?
Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 4:00AM The video below is an inside look at Foxconn and in particular, the part that builds Apple products. It highlights what looks like poor working conditions, but in China they may not be so bad. Let's not presume this is just an Apple problem because it is a Chinese problem. And one that is created thanks to our desire for the items they build. So, ask yourself a question. Would you pay double the price you do now for a tablet or a smartphone to see wages and conditions improve in China? Or even better, to see these objects of desire built in the West to help improve our own economies? And if you still believe that this is an Apple problem, consider who is building the budget tablets and phones. I dread to think...
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Reader Comments (6)
This is the first intelligent comment on that situation. Thank you.
Apple make staggering profits. If gadgets need to cost more then so be it. My gadget need is not essential, living in reasonable conditions is more important.
What have Apple profits to do with Foxconn? When you subcontract, you go to a poyential supplier and you tell him I can pay you X for the works/parts/... He accepts/refuses or try to negotiate better conditions. How much money YOU make is irrelevant.
Two thoughts:
1) I think some people already do, if you work out the maths of 2 years @ £50 a month contracts, that always throw in huge numbers of minutes to balance things (and rely on those not being used).
2) I can't help but feel that if phones were more expensive it would be a good thing. We wouldn't have hundreds of models released almost weekly, as commitment from customers would be such a huge thing. Might even get decent battery life. How many people change their phone yearly but still run a computer thats years old? I know I do...
My comment about Apples profits relates to the end cost of products for us consumers not about what Apple pays its suppliers.
The manufacturing industry has always chased the lowest cost for its production facilities and labour charges make up a large part of the end cost of some products. In the sixties and seventies this exact thing was happening in Japan, in the eighties and nineties the Tiger economies around the Pacific. Look what's happened to the living standards in all of those countries since - they have in many cases surpassed our own.
The same will happen in China.