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Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by sneak on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @04:38PM (#29490864)
You are forgetting about manufacturing.

While China is indeed an important and huge market for sales... approximately 100% of Apple's products are manufactured in China (save some tiny fraction that are assembled in India or Texas).

Every iPhone sold everywhere worldwide (except the few assembled in India) comes from China.

Apple cannot exist without China. Full stop.

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by onepointsixC on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @04:44PM (#29490934)
That's completely wrong. How is it that one of their largest global competitors, Samsung, exists despite having no factories in China for years now? Apple could leave China just fine as far as manufacturing is concerned. The question is would it be able to still sell to the Chinese market if it does.
Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by sneak on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @06:30PM (#29491972)
Foxconn has an iPhone City of hundreds of thousands of people (something like 350k).

They make something like 200 million iPhones per year.

If you think that can be moved "just fine" then we will have to agree to disagree.

Producing something of the iPhone's quality, at the scale of a half million per day, every single day (that's 23,000 per hour, every hour, 24/7, for an entire year) is not something one can just pick up and move, even with Apple's resources.

It would take several years, if indeed it is possible at all. There are dozens or hundreds of managing workers at Foxconn who have been designing and producing iPhone manufacturing lines for a decade+, and I doubt China would give them and their families all exit visas to move to some other country to assist Foxconn and Apple in divesting themselves of the CCP's prerogatives.

This ain't Factorio.

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by onepointsixC on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @07:28PM (#29492428)
>If you think that can be moved "just fine" then we will have to agree to disagree.

Then let's agree to disagree, as Samsung, with it's 253 million shipments[1] does exactly that having explicitly moved out of China[2]. It is not impossible.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_ph... [2]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-china/samsun...

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by Aperocky on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @07:08PM (#29492304)
> X could leave China just fine

If something has potential, then it will happen. The higher the potential, the faster it will happen. And laws, contrary to what many believe, only has limited potential.

So if leaving China has potential, then it will happen. Tariffs have already made the potential higher, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like it's breaking even just yet.

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by manquer on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @04:47PM (#29490965)
China is not the only cheap manufacturing hub. If Apple wanted to, they could be investing their 100's of billions (instead of stock buy backs they have been doing for years) in alternative locations to build their capability in other geographies.

Apple is still doing China because it wants to, not because it has to. At their size they have the time and money to invest in multiple locations and spread their risks.

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by OldHand2018 on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @07:44PM (#29492516)
My M1 Mac mini says "Designed in California Made in Malaysia" on it.

So perhaps it is "approximately 95%"?

It would be really interesting to know the actual number, wouldn't it?

Re:Apple CEO Tim Cook 'secretly' signed $275B deal with Chin... by gscott on Wednesday December 08, 2021 @11:34PM (#29493866)
Likely the parts are shipped in from China to Malaysia.