Posted on 05/23/2016 6:59:56 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Should've started -- and stopped -- right there.
True Americans hate Apple as much as they hate Target
We don’t support Anti-American corporations who are here to undermine American society
What Apple did was evil and they shall pay for it on wall street.
30% off of the Iphone7 might be compelling. Of course, like I said, I am not in the market so I guess that it would be moot. Also, this is not Apple's business model so it would never happen.
Why do companies accept the orders in the first place? Well, the first few who did got seriously burned. Now that price is built-in to the estimates so there is wiggle room when the inevitable slowdown comes, and those thousands of dedicated CNCs are sitting idle for 12 hours a day. That's already baked into the original price.
And you have to realize that companies do NOT make all their profit from sales of product; there are pretty hefty kickbacks from the Chinese Governments (Local, Provincial, and National) to keep employment high. So they aren't just for-profit organizations, they are also jobs programs.
Anyway, the overestimation of capacity is a well-worn game, used effectively time and again. And in light of Apple's continuing slide in overall market share it's not entire unexpected. Overestimate of production, or the ability to use 100% capacity for a short time (1 quarter or so) will become the norm. And supply chain managers in all organizations use excess capacity arguments to drive prices down - it's a very common technique.
Personally, I think flexible OLEDs with self healing polymer coatings are going to be the wave of the future. It will bend as needed, and small scratches and holes will self-repair - meaning a screen that is incredibly difficult to damage in the first place (it flexes) and when it does get a small ding, it repairs itself.
You don't use Apple products so you really do not know a thing about what you are talking about when you blither about "planned obsolescence curves." Apple products remain non-obsolete far longer than other makers' products and hold their values much higher and longer. That is why they have a far better total cost of ownership than the others on every study done. You really don't have a clue.
Lol. Oh yes I do know about Apple. I have been burned three times — two ipods and an ipad not mentioning my dads Mac pro computer which was unsupported several years ago.
We have sunk a lot of cash into Apple products so yes I am a bit of an expert.
Anyway...
So, if they offer their Iphone7 at a 30% discount, then I might be interested. Of course, that would never happen but it is a challenge just the same.
Both articles based on the reports of a single source ANAL-CYSTS' claims from a report from a single supplier, both of which were later debunked as the source was one that was not being used for the iPhone SE. In fact, that article you linked COUNTERS the original Wall Street Journal article you originally linked. . . not a very strong support for your original link since it's title is "Why supply chain rumors don't necessarily mean bad news for the iPhone" and came just one day after the original WSJ article to refute it.
Your claim is based on this paragraph:
So, what about the details of the report? It’s seemingly not based on Apple sources, but rather a few reports from within and around Apple’s Chinese supply chain. A Chinese provincial capital is paying Foxconn, which assembles iPhones, some subsidies to stave off layoffs. Separately, the report cites supply-chain sources that “Apple has cut its order forecasts to iPhone suppliers in the past several months.”
However, Apple is NOT FoxConn's only customer and in fact the other customers have cut back far more than has Apple and it is THERE that support is needed, not on Apple's assembly line. Apple is building iPhone SEs as fast as they can and still not being able to meet demand at this time with a three week delay in delivery to end users, so where, exactly is this cut back you imply exists?
Apple has been continually criticized for NOT meeting demand for its new products on introduction, just as it is now being criticized for not meeting demand for the iPhone SE. Last year for not meeting initial demand for the iPhone 6s and Apple Watch, and before that for the iPhone 6 and 6 plus. None of this implies what you claim.
As I stated, Apple OWNS the CNC machines on Apple's dedicated assembly lines, having designed and purchased them for these contract assemblers. Having them lying idle and not being used to assemble some other companies' products is not a problem for Apple. But generally a cut back for Apple is merely a reduction in OVERTIME work for the employees on the dedicated assembly lines, not a lay off of employees, due to the "just in time" inventory approach to moving parts and components to the assembly plant, there are no real down times on a product that sells ~230 million units a year.
Apple does not "ship into the channel for inventory" as do other makers such as LG, Samsung, and the other commodity phone makers, but rather most often ships directly to end users on sale of the product. Apple is the only Consumer Electronic maker that reports actual sales of products to end users, and not estimated products shipped into channel inventories which can be later discounted or even returned as unsold goods.
We've gone round and round about this and you are NO KIND of expert except on your ignorance of what you didn't do. . . such as didn't replace the batteries on your iPods when they got old after years of useful life through any of the numerous services that were willing to do that for a minor cost.
I know that, for a fact, is wrong. For example, Hi-P in Shanghai does all the home buttons for all the phones and iPads. It's a multi-step process starting with an overmolded component (double-shot IM machine), and then three different CNC machines used to complete the processing of the buttons.
The Hi-P factory manager stated unequivocally that they owned all the machines. Apple "fronted" the money for them, but Hi-P must buy them back from Apple over 12 months' time, either with direct payments or discounts on the produced product. At the end of the 12 months - they are Hi-P machines.
And yes, I've been to that factory too many times. In addition to the Apple parts, they also make a lot of iRobot/Roomba products there. And many other products for other companies as well (including one of my clients). It's down in Pudong district, about 10 km due West of the Pudong Airport if you want to go and see it. Spread over 4 buildings, two in the main campus, two more buildings each about 500-600 meters away.
Anyway, that's pretty much how it works with Apple's supply chain. But I'll bow out now, I see that this is a bee in your bonnet, and your use of slanderous names shows that Apple is a near-religion for you... Facts can be detrimental to faith, so I'll leave you with your faith intact.
Dude. You need to stop smoking crack.
Yet all those pontificating that Apple was about to die because supposedly suppliers were saying orders were easy depressed....
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