Who Makes the Apple iPhone: Apple Outsourcing Analysis?

1. What are the benefits to Apple of outsourcing the assembly of the iPhone to foreign countries, and especially China? What are the potential expenses and dangers to Apple? There are numerous benefits for Apple in outsourcing their assembly line to China. Although Apple declares that the decision wasn't about the inexpensive labor, all of it boils down to the cash. The choice was rooted in the fact that it would save Apple a lot of money. It is reasonable that a business looks for to lower their manufacturing costs, however Apple needs to admit that the relocation was about the cash rather of indicating other factors.

In the event, Apple declares that it was also about the convenience of the service that was available in China. They declared that they could order a change in the manufacturing of the product which China would be able to accommodate them practically right away.

Another advantage that outsourcing offered Apple with is the engineers required for the iPhone production.

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Apple required an amount of engineers for the job, and it was priced estimate that it would take 15 days to find the engineers in China instead of 9 months in the US. Some expenses and dangers that Apple deals with in the future could be that China will raise their prices however not greater than what is would costs Apple to return the assembly line to the US. China will charge a higher rate, however insufficient to where Apple with discover another country to outsource to.

Another risk that Apple might deal with is that China will quickly imitate their products, due to the basic truths that they are the ones putting everything together and they are the ones that know all the details about the iPhone. So Apple might face a strong rival or imitators that might put their company at risk.

2. In addition to Apple, who else take advantage of Apple's choice to outsource assembly to China? Who are the possible losers here?

First off, the ones who benefit the most from Apple contracting out to China, is China. They benefit the most since they know every detail about how the product is made, they now have numerous thousands more jobs offered, and likewise because it is increasing their economy. China gets almost the most from Apple deciding to outsource.

The losers in this case would definitely have to be the US for a number of reasons. Apple is charging the US citizens a lot of money to own an iPhone while at the same time not giving much back to the people. Apple isn’t giving much back in to the economy in the sense that they could have not outsourced and provided with many and many of Americans with job opportunities, but they didn’t. All of these decisions in the end do not benefit the American economy as much as the Chinese economy.

3. What are the potential ethical problems associated with outsourcing assembly jobs to Foxconn in China? How might Apple deal with these?

The most obvious ethical problem with outsourcing assembly jobs to Foxconn is that they dismissed the American people as though they are not worth offering the jobs to. There are many American citizens that simply do not agree with Apple’s decision to outsource their jobs to China, because it doesn’t benefit the American people but rather only Apple.

Additional ethical problems are the fact that Apple went to China for their cheap labor, and are continuing to operate their knowing that there are many employees in those factories that being mistreated. The Foxconn employees are being demanded to work overtime, they are not being paid properly and that they are simply misusing and taking advantage of the situation all for Apple’s benefit. This is a major ethical problem because of the fact that Apple is not actively trying to correct that situation.

4. On balancing, do you think that the kind of outsourcing undertaken by Apple is a good thing or a bad thing for the American economy? Explain your reasoning

As stated previously, outsourcing does not benefit the American people or economy. So Apple deciding to outsource their assembly line to China is a bad thing for the US. Apple deciding this simply benefits themselves more than anyone else. The next one that gets the most benefit from this outsourcing is Chinas economy. Apple is providing China with more job opportunities which benefit their economy. Apple is only selling their products to the American people; they are not giving back to them in any other way.