apple-list February 2012

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INTEREST: Pressure Drives Changes at Foxconn

by Wayne Billing

…from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin… Pressure, Chinese and Foreign, Drives Changes at Foxconn [cid:09F4190D-0FBE-4BE3-AFA4-DF14E71C0104] Xuan Hui/European Pressphoto Agency Foxconn, which recruited workers at a 2010 job fair in Shenzhen, China, said Saturday it would sharply raise its wages. By DAVID BARBOZA<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/david_barboza/…> and CHARLES DUHIGG<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/charles_duhigg…> Published: February 19, 2012 BEIJING — The announcement Saturday that Foxconn Technology<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/foxconn_technology/in…>— one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers — will sharply raise salaries and reduce overtime<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/technology/foxconn-to-raise-salaries-for-…> at its Chinese factories signals that pressure from workers, international markets and concerns among Western consumers about working conditions is driving a fundamental shift that could accelerate an already rapidly changing Chinese economy. Enlarge This Image<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> [cid:41EE66C2-5D45-404A-AB02-130D013F5BC0]<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> Thomas Lee/Bloomberg News Trainees at a Foxconn industrial park in Shenzhen, China, walked beneath a poster of Terry Gou, chairman of Foxconn's parent, Hon Hai Precision Industry. Enlarge This Image<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> [cid:C7AE0457-39FF-452D-98BC-8D787237EAC1]<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/pressures-drive-change-at-chin…> Ym Yik/European Pressphoto Agency Foxconn employees in Shenzhen. The company has announced plans to invest in automation. But the true meaning of Foxconn’s reforms, analysts say, will depend in part on how effectively the company can remake an economic system that has relied for much of the last decade on luring migrants to work cheaply for long hours in mammoth factories building smartphones, computers and other electronics. Plants depend on workers’ being at assembly lines six or seven days a week, often for as long as 14 hours a day. Such facilities have made it possible for devices to be turned out almost as quickly as they are dreamed up. For that system to genuinely change, Foxconn, its competitors and their clients — which include Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and the world’s other large electronics firms — must convince consumers in America and elsewhere that improving factories to benefit workers is worth the higher prices of goods. “This is the way capitalism is supposed to work,” said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “As nations develop, wages rise and life theoretically gets better for everyone. “But in China, for that change to be permanent, consumers have to be willing to bear the consequences. When people read about bad Chinese factories in the paper, they might have a moment of outrage. But then they go to Amazon and are as ruthless as ever about paying the lowest prices.” Foxconn, with 1.2 million Chinese employees, is one of China’s largest employers. It assembles an estimated 40 percent of the smartphones, computers and other electronic gadgets sold around the world. Foxconn’s decisions set standards other manufacturers must compete with. The announcement by Foxconn, which said that it would raise salaries as much as 25 percent, to about $400 a month, came after an outcry over working conditions at its factories. In recent weeks, labor rights groups have staged coordinated protests in various countries after reports that some of Apple’s Chinese suppliers operate harsh, abusive and dangerous facilities<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-hum…>. To stem criticism, Apple hired a nonprofit labor group<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/apple-announces-independent-factor…> to inspect the plants it uses. Workers welcomed the announced raises and overtime limits, though some were skeptical they would cause much real change. “When I was in Foxconn, there were rumors about pay raises every now and then, but I’ve never seen that day happen until I left,” said Gan Lunqun, 23, a former Foxconn worker. “This time it sounds more credible.” By bowing to such demands, Foxconn has conceded that employees and consumers have gained a sway once possessed only by Chinese bureaucrats and executives at the global electronics firms that hire Foxconn to build their products. Foxconn’s announcement also reflects how quickly China’s economy is shifting. Many of the country’s employers are facing labor shortages, which also puts upward pressure on wages, as do inflation and government demands to raise minimum wages. Over 100 million migrant workers returned to their village homes this month to celebrate China’s Spring Festival, otherwise known as the New Year. Traditionally, factories have had no problem luring those workers back. But many Chinese cities are still confronting serious labor shortages, even though the holiday ended weeks ago. A recent Chinese government report said this year’s labor shortage was more pronounced than those in previous years. And just as China’s exporters are struggling to cope with labor shortages in coastal regions, they are also confronting higher raw material costs and a strengthening Chinese currency, which makes Chinese goods more expensive in other nations. “China can’t guarantee the low wages and costs they once did,” said Ron Turi of Element 3 Battery Venture, a consulting firm in the battery industry. “And companies like Foxconn have developed international profiles, and so they have to worry about how they’re seen by people living in places with very different standards.” No other company in the world has quite the manufacturing scale of Foxconn. Nearly every global electronics company has some tie to the manufacturing giant, and while much of its work can be done cheaply, with low-skilled workers, the sheer volume of goods and scale of its operations make it China’s single biggest exporter. Some of its campuses are considered small cities, with as many as 200,000 workers. Many are housed in dormitories near the assembly lines and are expected to be ready to rush into work should new orders flow in. The Foxconn model, though, is under pressure. While most companies operate with similar dormitories, wage structures and work schedules, staffing Foxconn’s large sites has grown increasingly difficult. A new generation of young people in China are more reluctant to migrate to coastal cities, live in factory dorms and toil long hours. Many are staying closer to home, because of new opportunities in inland provinces. That has created labor shortages on the coast. Social scientists say young people here are also less willing to accept factory jobs for long periods. Meanwhile, demographic changes have meant China has fewer young people to join the work force. If the workers will not move to the coast, the logic is that the coastal factories ought to move to where the workers are living. Big manufacturers like Foxconn have responded to such challenges by moving factories inland. And worried that the old model is dying, Foxconn has announced plans to invest in millions of robots and automate aspects of production. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

12 years, 1 month

INTEREST: The Dilemma of Cheap Electronics

by Wayne Billing

…from http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/the-dilemma-of-cheap-electronics/… [Pogue's Posts - The Latest in Technology From David Pogue]<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/> February 9, 2012, 2:37 PM The Dilemma of Cheap Electronics Last week, an important Times article<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-hum…> set off shockwaves in the consumer tech industry by focusing on tragedies and working conditions at Foxconn, the Chinese electronics factory that makes Apple iPhones. It describes excessive overtime, crowding in worker dorms, improper disposal of hazardous waste and unsafe working conditions. These revelations have shocked a lot of Apple fans — and fired up a lot of Apple foes. There are petitions and flooded comment boards. This morning, protesters delivered petitions at six major Apple stores, including the new one in Grand Central Terminal. The article and the response are healthy. Nobody wants to see workers exploited, and if Apple can pressure Foxconn to clean up its act, it should. Apple is the poster child for the conditions at the Foxconn factory, and no wonder: it’s the most profitable electronics company. It makes a big, spectacular target. There’s an important factor, however, that seems to be largely missing from the conversation, though it was noted in the article: Apple isn’t the only company that builds electronics at Chinese factories. The truth is, almost all of them do. Foxconn’s other clients are a Who’s Who of popular electronics. They build cellphones, TVs, computers, e-book readers, routers, circuit boards, game consoles and on and on. Its customers include Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, I.B.M., Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Netgear, Nintendo, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Vizio. And that’s just Foxconn. There are other big Chinese electronics makers. As the Times article says, “Bleak working conditions have been documented at factories manufacturing products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others.” It’s safe to say that most electronics sold in the United States are made in these Chinese factories. So yes, we should pressure Apple to continue putting pressure on Foxconn. But at the same time, we seem to be ignoring a much bigger and more important question: How much do we care? That Chinese workers are paid less than American workers is no big shock. We’ve known that forever. That’s why everybody outsources to China in the first place. There’s a long list of Chinese manufacturing costs that are lower than American manufacturing costs: hourly employee rates, worker benefits, taxes, the cost of power, buildings and equipment, and more. Bringing workplace standards and pay in Chinese factories up to American levels would, of course, raise the price of our electronics. How much is hard to say, but a financial analyst for an outsourcing company figures a $200 iPhone might cost $350 if it were built here. Do we care enough about Chinese factory conditions to pay nearly twice as much for our phones, tablets, cameras, TVs, computers, GPS units, camcorders, music players, DVD players, DVRs, networking gear and stereo equipment? Not everybody will say yes. But suppose they did. How would we get there? Which electronics brand would jump first? In other words, what assurance would the Apples and Dells and Panasonics have that if they forced their Chinese contractors to adopt American-level wages and conditions, their competitors would all do so simultaneously? That’s the part that the protests are missing. Is Apple supposed to be the only company that takes on the costs of improving conditions? Are the protesters seeking a world where an iPhone costs $350 and a competitive Android phone costs $200? Or don’t we really want all of the companies to make that move simultaneously? The issue is complicated. It’s upsetting. We, the consumers, want our shiny electronics. We want them cheap, yet we want them built by well-paid, healthy workers. But apparently, we can’t have both. Sooner or later, we’ll have to make a choice. The fault, dear Brutus, is not just at Apple, or in China — it’s also in ourselves.

12 years, 2 months

INTEREST: Foxconn: 1 million robots by 2013….

by billing

….from: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/30/c_131018764.htm Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years File photo SHENZHEN, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn will replace some of its workers with 1 million robots in three years to cut rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, said Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the company, late Friday. The robots will be used to do simple and routine work such as spraying, welding and assembling which are now mainly conducted by workers, said Gou at a workers' dance party Friday night. The company currently has 10,000 robots and the number will be increased to 300,000 next year and 1 million in three years, according to Gou. Foxconn, the world's largest maker of computer components which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, is in the spotlight after a string of suicides of workers at its massive Chinese plants, which some blamed on tough working conditions. The company currently employs 1.2 million people, with about 1 million of them based on the Chinese mainland. = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = …from: http://www.economist.com/node/21525432 Robots don’t complain Or demand higher wages, or kill themselves Aug 6th 2011 | HONG KONG | from the print edition WITH more than 1m workers, Foxconn may be China’s largest private employer. The secretive electronics giant is renowned for taking designs from Western firms, such as Apple, and using cheap labour to crank them out in huge quantities. But its fantastically successful business model seems to have run its course. At a closed retreat in late July, Terry Gou, the chief executive of the Taiwanese-owned company (which is also known as Hon Hai), unveiled a plan to hire 1m robots by 2013. In a public statement, Foxconn talked about moving its human workers “higher up the value chain” and into sexy fields such as research. But at least some will surely lose their jobs. Robots are easier to manage. Several Foxconn employees have committed suicide; in the latest case, a 21-year-old threw himself off a building in late July. In May an explosion at a new factory in Chengdu killed three employees and, it is believed, caused delays to the production of Apple’s iPads. To pacify its increasingly restive workers, Foxconn has repeatedly bumped up their wages, improved facilities, provided counselling and swathed its factories with nets to catch anyone leaping from a window. All this costs money. China’s competitive edge has long been its vast supply of cheap hands. But as the country grows richer, skills shortages are driving wages rapidly up. Foxconn’s decision to alter its mix of capital and labour is thus logical, and mirrors what many smaller firms are already doing. But the switch may not be smooth. Foxconn’s expertise has been in running well-regimented armies of people making goods for highly visible global companies. It is not known to have skills in running automated production lines; and moving in this direction will put it in competition with companies that do. Rising wages are good for Chinese workers, and for firms that want to sell them things. But they also raise questions. Do they spell an end to the cheap “China price” for manufactured goods? Will multinational firms shift production elsewhere? Or will Chinese firms adapt nimbly to automation and remain fearsome competitors? They might, but Chinese robots may be no cheaper than robots elsewhere. Finally, will the shift to a more capital-intensive capitalism throw legions of workers onto the streets? The Chinese authorities will be watching nervously. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

12 years, 2 months

INTEREST: CNN visits Foxconn factory

by Wayne Billing

- Added On February 6, 2012 CNN's John Vause describes the conditions he saw while visiting a Foxconn factory…. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/01/12/lklv-grant-china-foxc… - Added On January 12, 2012 Microsoft investigates a report that workers at a plant manufacturing Xbox systems threatened suicide in a pay dispute. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/01/12/lklv-grant-china-foxc… …and the undercutting of production costs by China is not restricted to the American electronics industry: - Added On February 5, 2012 Indian weavers say an invasion of cheap Chinese fabric is threatening an ancient art. CNN's Sara Sidner reports. http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/02/06/sidner-india-chinese-sari-… Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

12 years, 2 months

FYI: Your Deleted Facebook Photos Still Aren’t Really Deleted

by Wayne Billing

…from: http://gizmodo.com/5882703/your-deleted-facebook-photos-still-arent-really-… Your Deleted Facebook Photos Still Aren’t Really Deleted Three years ago, Ars Technica discovered that when you "deleted" your photos, they were still kept on Facebook's servers<http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/are-those-photos-really-deleted-fro…>, and anyone with a static URL could still access it. Three years later, Ars Technica revisited the matter and found little has changed<http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/nearly-3-years-later-deleted-f…>. But Facebook says that things will be different...eventually. Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng got Facebook to comment on the matter, they're developing a new one which will permanently wipe photos off their servers within 45 days of a user "deleting" the photo from the site. "The systems we used for photo storage a few years ago did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens told Ars via e-mail. Wolens explained that photos remaining online are stuck in a legacy system that was apparently never operating properly, but said the company is working on a new system that will delete the photos in a mere month and a half. For really real this time. So if there's some incriminating piece of imagery on Facebook you're really dying to have removed once and for all, maybe all hope isn't lost entirely. [Ars Technica<http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/nearly-3-years-later-deleted-f…>] Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:Wayne_Billing@umanitoba.ca>

12 years, 2 months

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apple-list February 2012