Foxconn has admitted to finding underage interns as young as 14 working in one of its Chinese plants, where the minimum legal working age is 16. The company, which assembles Apple’s hugely popular iOS devices, has sent all underage workers back to their schools, and it’s now investigating how they were ended up at its plant.
An Apple store is opening in China next week, in Wangujing Street, an outdoor pedestrian mall that has been there for over 800 years. This will the the third retails store in Beijing, China, and it’s said that it will be the largest Apple store in Asia. It will join over 200 other shops in the shopping destination center about a mile from historic Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
While Tim Cook has been CEO, Apple’s stock price has been soared into the stratosphere. Some believe Apple’s incredible growth is bound to plummet in the near future because, come on, how many more iPhones and iPads can they really sell to their U.S. and European customers?
In a new story for Fortune, Bill Powell argues that the sky’s still the limit for Apple, they just have to win in China. But Apple – with all its power and iconic devices that consumers lust for – is actually an underdog in the battle to win the Chinese handset market, and they’re going have to learn some new tricks if they hope to beat Samsung and others.
Looks like iOS 6 users aren’t the only ones unhappy with Apple’s new Maps app. The Taiwanese government is also complaining about the service, which reveals its new $1.4 billion early warning radar station in satellite view. The Defense Ministry is now asking the Cupertino company to obscure the images.
Following reports of a riot between 4,000 employees earlier this month, Foxconn has acknowledged that two disputes between workers did take place at one of its Chinese plants. However, the company has denied claims of a strike over iPhone 5 production pressures, and says that production is on schedule.
The iPhone 5 is the most complex phone Apple’s ever made, which makes it extra hard for Foxconn’s employees to assemble. There’s so much pressure at Foxconn to produce an increased amount of iPhone 5s that some managers have been beat up by their workers after demanding too much.
According to a new report by China Labor Watch thousands of Foxconn workers have gone on strike due to the immense pressures involved with building the iPhone 5. The main problem is that unqualified workers are being asked to build intricate devices without proper training. They keep messing up and the quality control gets on to them and they get pissed.
Apple’s retail stores bring in customers like no other retail outlet on the planet, and so it’s no surprise the Cupertino company is keen to build more of them. One possible market for expansion could be India, where Apple is currently forced to sell its products through distributors. However, one Indian retail rule, which states foreign companies must source 30% of the value of their sales from local firms, could stand in its way.
Earlier this morning reports surfaced that a riot broke out at a Foxconn factory. Sadly, 10 people were killed in the riot while many more have been injured and taken to the hospital. The riot involved 2,000 Foxconn employees who were finally brought under control by 5,000 police officers after a few hours.
The amount of damage done during the riot was massive. Store windows were smashed. Cars were flipped over. We now have some pictures of the vast destruction caused by the rioters. Take a look:
Earlier today, we reported on the Foxconn riot that broke out at the company’s Taiyuan, China, plant on Sunday evening. More than 2,000 employees were involved, and it took more than 5,000 police several hours officers to bring the disturbance under control.
Although many were injured, it was first thought that there were no deaths. Unfortunately the riot was much worse than initially reported, and ten workers have now been pronounced dead, according to reports.
A Foxconn factory in Taiyuan, China — where many of Apple’s devices are assembled before being shipped — has had to be closed after 2,000 workers became involved in a “mass disturbance” on Sunday evening.
The fight reportedly broke out after a personal quarrel involving workers from two different production lines, but messages posted to Chinese microblogging network Sina Weibo have claimed that the brawl was actually caused by factory guards beating Foxconn workers.
SAN FRANCISCO — American companies are rightly proud to show off any manufacturing facilities supporting jobs during the current recession, and San Francisco-based Timbuk2 is no exception. This week, the company known for its messenger bags showed us the hangar here in the Mission district where workers cut and sew colorful swaths of material and help contribute to the local manufacturing economy.
As a group of reporters was ushered through the trendy open-plan set-up, it made us think about what a factory tour of Apple’s manufacturing plants would be like. We’ll never know, of course. Tim Cook would never allow a tour like this one.
What is a Goophone? It sounds absolutely filthy, but the Goophone i5 is the first of what will undoubtedly be many flagrant Chinese rip-offs of the upcoming design of the new sixth-generation iPhone, set to be unveiled next month. Expect to see a lot more of these going forward, but credit where credit’s due: these Chinese counterfeiters certainly have their acts together if they can steal the design of a phone that isn’t even out yet.
Source: Nowherelese.fr
Via: Gizmodo
It’s foolish to put too much stock in “leaked” images of third-party cases when it comes to predicting what the next Apple device is going to look like, but these iPad mini cases found in China really do look like the real thing: these aren’t just made for a shrunk-down-to-seven-inches iPad, but for a new tablet that is more like a big iPhone when it comes to its bezel design.
Other interesting details of these cases include a rear camera, no LED flash, a front facing Facetime camera, a smalller dock connector, and volume rockers on the right side of the device. Gizchina, where these pictures originate, speculate that a hole in the center of the case is meant to attach a “lanyard,” but that’s just silly: Apple wouldn’t ship a product with a laynard. That’s a hole for a microphone, same as you’ll find in the current iPad.
More images below. What do you think?
Remember that Chinesee teen last year who sold his kidney for an iPad 2? He wasn’t the only one: earlier this year, another Chinese teen named Wang swapped his kidney for an iPhone and iPad. Now the butchers who operated on him are in court, awaiting their verdicts.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer presented the results of the company’s spring 2012 quarter. The quarter included extensive growth for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines though iPod sales declined 10% from the same quarter a year ago.
Here are the financial numbers delivered during the call.
Apple’s third-generation iPad finally goes on sale in China today, more than four months after making its debut in the United States. And unlike previous iPhone and iPad launches in China, which have been marred by huge crowds and violent scalpers, this one has been described as “quiet” and “low-key.”
We’re still a few months away from Apple’s new iPhone unveiling, but that hasn’t stopped a number of Chinese retailers from selling the device in advance. They’re using the mockup pictures that have been circulating for weeks to make a quick buck from the hotly-anticipated handset, with some asking for as much as $8,600 a piece.
Apple has announced that the new iPad will finally make its debut in China on Friday, July 20, more than two months after the device made its debut in the United States. The third-generation tablet, which is the first iPad to feature a high-resolution Retina display, will be available through the Apple Online Store, Apple retail stores, and from select Apple Authorized Resellers.
Apple is very quick to jump on rival companies who infringe upon its patents, and the company is currently embroiled in a number of legal battles with the likes of Samsung and HTC. But sometimes, Apple is on the receiving end of these complaints. In China, the Cupertino company is being sued for infringing upon a voice assistant patent with its Siri feature.
Marking the end of the longstanding trademark dispute over the name “iPad,” Apple has agreed in Chinese court to pay a $60 million settlement fee to Proview Technology. Once the money is transferred, the settlement will officially end the court battles between the two companies.
Proview originally accused Apple of stealing its iPad trademark in February 2012 on Chinese soil, and the legal dispute has continued since. The U.S. California court ruled against Proview’s accusation earlier this year, and Guangdong High People’s Court reports that Apple and Proview have reached an agreement that Apple will shell out a cool $60 million to close the case once and for all.
In a four-month investigation of 10 of Apple’s Chinese suppliers, China Labor Watch has found what they call “deplorable” working conditions in many of the factories of Apple’s component manufacturers. These factories allegedly contain hazardous working conditions and excessive overtime.
This week’s TIME Magazine cover story is called “The Cult of Apple in China.” On newsstands tomorrow, it’s an in-depth look at how Apple thrives in China.
The article’s author, Hannah Beech, writes: “The American company is thriving in China, even as other Western tech firms struggle with local competition and communications restrictions imposed by the authoritarian state. Apple products now serve as the ultimate totem of upward mobility in a country with a fast-growing middle class.”
That all sounds rosy, but as Beech makes clear, the future is far for certain as Apple, as the government of China increasingly becomes nationalistic. How long will they allow Apple to profit so handsomely within China without starting to try to take a bigger piece of the pie?
Foxconn has confirmed that a 23-year-old worker committed suicide this week by jumping from his apartment in the southwestern city of Chengdu. The worker only began his employment with Foxconn last month. Police are investigating the death.
When opening up his new MacBook Pro, an Apple customer recently found the laminated card pictured above that was probably lost in the packaging by some worker at the Foxconn factory. Obviously it’s in Chinese, which adds a bit of mystery to the card because most of us Americans can’t read it. Does the card contain Apple’s secret plans for world domination? Maybe it’s an invitation to a top secret party?
Apple offers a number of search engines for iOS users, including Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing. According to a new report today, Apple will be adding Baidu search engine support for iPhone owners in China as early as next week. The feature will likely be announced alongside other iOS 6 announcements at WWDC.
Baidu is basically the Google of China, owning 80% of the market there while Google only owns 17%. It’s not surprising that Apple would want to support the largest search engine in the iPhone and iPad’s fastest growing market. Not to mention that this is another move that pushes a certain company farther away from iOS.