Apple CEO Tim Cook
The origin of Apple and china's industrial chain
As the world's most successful mobile phone brand and the world's largest consumer electronics market, Apple and China had a long honeymoon period. Apple's pre-iPhone situation was not too good — since Jobs left the company he founded in 1985, Apple has gradually lost its former aura and gradually lagged behind nascent companies such as HP and Dell in the core personal computer business.
At a time when Apple was in crisis, founder Steve Jobs returned to CEO in 1997, and Apple's share of the personal computer market fell from 14% to less than 6%. More serious than the decline in share is that Apple has been unable to find a direction for the company to continue to develop, and the cumulative loss scale of four consecutive quarters has exceeded $1 billion, so they hope that founder Jobs can bring Apple back to life through personal ability.
The iPod became Apple's savior
Jobs did not live up to everyone's expectations, after taking charge of Apple, he first eased the contradictions with Microsoft and reached a partnership, the two reached a 5-year patent licensing agreement, and Microsoft's IE also became the default browser on Apple's Mac computers. The partnership also brought $150 million to Apple, and it was with this funding that Jobs retained the spark for Apple's revival.
Later, Jobs launched the epoch-making music player iPod, with which Apple finally found a second strong growth point in addition to the declining personal computer business, and also allowed Apple to return to the center of the technology stage from the edge.
The iPhone changed the world
But the size of the global music market is limited, only the iPod is not enough for Apple, they urgently need to launch a product after the iPod that can really make Apple stand, and finally in 2007, the iPhone, a product that changed the mobile phone and the daily life of ordinary people, appeared.
iPhone in many mobile phones can be regarded as an "outlier", not only in the function and operation of the way of difference, more importantly, Apple does not have a mobile phone production plant, all parts rely on third-party suppliers, which is also in stark contrast to the mobile phone giants Nokia and Samsung at that time. What underpins this crazy idea is China's strong and complete manufacturing capabilities.
iPhone
Jobs has always been known for his pursuit of perfection and paranoia, and these characteristics are also reflected in the design of the iPhone, a well-known story about the iPhone because Apple modified the design, resulting in a delay in the design of a component, and by the time the final draft was sent to the Chinese factory, it was already midnight. As a result, the factory started the production line late at night, and all the employees temporarily rushed to catch up with the goods and finally ensured that the iPhone was on time. It can be said that without the support of the industrial chain made in China, the iPhone could not have achieved today's achievements.
Foreign media broke the news that Apple is evaluating the iPhone's abandonment of the Chinese market
The shadow of the outage
But there is now a rift between the former good partners, according to Fox News and other foreign media broke the news, Apple is evaluating the impact and consequences of abandoning the Chinese market, which may mean that Cook has anticipated that maybe one day the iPhone will also say goodbye to us.
Foreign media broke the news that Apple is evaluating the iPhone's abandonment of the Chinese market
Why did Apple make this assessment? Because Apple has had a big impact on Russia's supply cut, due to the overall slow sales, the iPhone 13 series had to cut 10 million orders. Compared with the short-term loss, what is more serious is that the decision to cut off supply not only makes Apple stand against consumers, but also greatly damages Apple's brand image.
After Cook replaced Jobs to take charge of Apple, Apple's most important point of competition has gradually changed from the previous technology to brand operation, but the emergence of supply cuts has undoubtedly caused a huge rift in the Apple brand shaped by Jobs. This behavior has also made more and more consumers no longer trust Apple and iPhone, and the supply cut may also become a turning point in Apple's development.
Consumers whose supply has been cut off
Why did Cook begin to evaluate the impact of the iPhone's abandonment of the Chinese market at this point? Because Apple as a company does not have many options, just like russia today, once one day receives the order to cut off supply, then Apple is likely to continue to cut off supply to the second and third countries, so Cook, as Apple's CEO, must also consider various situations.
iPhone Factory
What impact apple leaving has on us
What will be the impact of Apple's departure? The first is naturally the industrial chain. In the past, with strong domestic manufacturing capabilities, the iPhone completed a miracle in the history of mobile phones. At the same time that Apple has achieved great success, the domestic industrial chain has also shared a lot of profits with the iPhone.
There are quality control problems in Southeast Asian apple products
Now that Cook has planned ahead to start shifting manufacturing orders for Apple products to Southeast Asia, it's actually a preparation. However, this choice is not without cost, due to the imperfection of the manufacturing process, Apple products made in Southeast Asia have a large number of gaps, lax fit, obvious current sound and other problems, these quality control problems have also greatly affected Apple's high-end brand image.
iPhone
For consumers who buy iPhones, although they have become accustomed to the iOS system, the iPhone is not irreplaceable, and even if Apple chooses to leave the final impact, it is very limited.
iPhone
Write at the end
As the pioneer of the smartphone era, the iPhone is undoubtedly an epoch-making work. But in today's Cook era, the iPhone has not only lost its previous proud design and technological aesthetics, but has fallen to improving profits by depressing the supply chain, whether it is the liu haiping screen that has not changed for many years or the much-criticized 12 million cameras, Apple is getting farther and farther away from the concept of excellence in the Jobs era.
Now the occurrence of the supply cut has greatly shaken Apple's brand image, when consumers no longer recognize the brand premium of the iPhone, how can Apple continue to maintain huge profits? What do you think Apple's departure will affect us? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.