Many people know that Apple has not been smooth sailing since its inception, the original Apple company once faced decline, Jobs returned 2 times before turning the situation around, but also rescued Apple from the quagmire.
2007 was an important turning point for Apple. With the release of the mobile product iPhone, Apple began to move toward rapid development. The iPhone had a huge impact on the global mobile phone industry and laid the foundation for Apple's position in the mobile phone industry.
Apple's market capitalization once exceeded $3 trillion and was once the world's most profitable company, which is inseparable from the talent and efforts of Jobs and his successor Cook, as well as the contribution of the Chinese market.
Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the mainland has established a very complete supply chain. Basically you can find any product in China with very good quality. It is understood that Jobs wanted to find a piece of glass that would not leave scratches, but had not found it for a long time, and found it in Shenzhen, China.
In order to achieve mass production, Apple found Foxconn and hoped to oem it. Foxconn has also built a number of factories on the mainland. Among Apple's many suppliers, most come from Taiwan, the mainland and Hong Kong.
It can also be seen from this that whether it is the supply chain or the manufacturing chain, the design scheme of the iPhone basically comes from the mainland, and the mainland market plays a very important role in the development of Apple.
Apple chose to shift its supply chain, the biggest reason is to reduce costs. Remember that after Cook came to power, because of his own talent is not as good as Jobs and due to practical technical limitations, Apple products have obviously begun to lack the previous amazing innovation GENES.
Therefore, in order to achieve more profits, it is necessary to reduce spending from the supply chain. So Apple began making global comparisons of each component. Choosing a solution that is in short supply at a low price has led many previous vendors to have to abandon their cooperation with Apple because the profits are too low.
Second, transfer the production line. In recent years, Vietnam in Southeast Asia and India in South Asia have attracted a large number of manufacturing companies to move in with their low labor advantages. Many of them moved in from China.
For example, Samsung closed all 8 Chinese mainland mobile phone factories and relocated them to Vietnam. Many companies, including Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo and many U.S.-Japan-South Korean companies, have moved capacity to these countries.
Apple is no exception, Foxconn has already built a factory in India to prepare for the production of Apple products. It is understood that the new Apple iPhone 14 will begin assembly and production in the Indian factory within two months of the launch, which is an unprecedented situation, before the new iPhone product is usually produced by Chinese mainland Foxconn first.
Apples eat meat and suppliers drink soup. In the process of Apple's rise, many suppliers have also grown bigger. Some even rely on Apple to survive. Basically there is only one Apple customer, so a serious dependency relationship is formed, and once it is kicked out, the company immediately falls into trouble, so CCTV has previously called on the company to deploy multiple areas to alleviate "Apple dependence".
Fortunately, Apple's major suppliers like Luxshare Precision and Lens Technology are increasing the layout of diversified businesses.
Apple is understood to have sold 380 million iPhones in China in 10 years. Due to the rise of Huawei, it fell into a trough, but last year it sold another 50.4 million units, which can be said to have made a lot of money. Relying on China's manufacturing capacity and supply chain rise, it will now transfer capacity.
So don't be fanciful about it at any time. Apple is a commercial company led by U.S. interests.
While there is still some distance between Indian and Vietnamese manufacturers and Chinese foundries, Apple is clearly determined to break away from the demand for mainland suppliers.
So Apple began making global comparisons of each component.
The reason for this is that Apple has officially announced that the iPhone 14 will be assembled and produced in India within two months of its launch, and not only that, apple Watch will also adjust the supply channel to Vietnam.
When it comes to China's relationship with the Apple market, we have to go back to Jobs's return. This has also established a close cooperation model between the Chinese market and Apple.
Over the past decade, China and Apple have developed a situation of interdependence. China relies on the profits and services that Apple brings, while Apple also relies on China's strong production capacity.
However, in recent years, especially after Jobs' death and Cook's takeover of Apple, Apple has begun to gradually deploy production lines to transfer. Foxconn was once the world's largest iPhone production base, but during the epidemic, Foxconn began to build factories in India and began to send experienced talents from domestic factories to India. Apple has slowly begun to try to gradually move production lines to indian factories.
Not only mobile phones, but also Apple's other products have previously been delivered mainly by China. But in recent years, in addition to India, Apple has also gradually shifted to Vietnam, and even this year's new units will be delivered to the Vietnamese factory for the first time to complete. Manufacturers such as Luxshare Precision and Lens Technology are responsible for the production of Apple computers, headphones and other products, while also building factories in Vietnam and gradually reducing domestic production arrangements.
As Apple products become increasingly devoid of innovation, spending must be reduced at the source if it is to make money.
The move also caused many vendors to abandon their partnership with Apple due to low profits.
In the early years, Apple trusted China's generation site because china had reliable technology and a complete support chain in addition to cheap labor costs.
On the face of it, Apple's shifting these work items to other cheaper Southeast Asian countries would reduce costs. But it must be known that there is still a certain gap between these local factories and China, especially for this kind of precision electronic products, in addition to paying attention to price, we should also pay attention to quality.
Therefore, in terms of price alone, it is clear that the current low labor force has a greater advantage than the mainland.
Now it seems that concerns are imminent, and the inevitability of the transformation of these domestic Apple suppliers is not only due to passive factors, but also the choices faced with the pace of national development.
Get rid of low-end manufacturing, no longer rely on low-cost labor to make money, but develop technology and transform into high-end "smart".