back to article iPad factory towns in China to finally get Apple Stores

Apple will start selling fondleslabs in the Chinese cities where they are made, a job advert reveals. A job posting for "Store Leaders" on the Hong Kong branch of JobsDB reveals that Apple is looking to set up Apple stores in the southern Chinese cities of Shenzen and Chengdu, where Apple assemblers Foxconn and Pegatron have …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lets get the inevitable comment out of the way

    "how can the people who make the iPads afford them when they are slave labor?"

    1. DRendar

      Re: Lets get the inevitable comment out of the way

      They aren't.

      I'm no Apple fanboi, far from it, but many (not all) of the stories about so-called slave labour in the foxcon plants are incorrect.

      If these plants were based in the US or UK, then yes, the level of remuneration would be unbelievably low, but over there it isn't.

      And no one is /forcing/ these people to work. Far from it, the queue in the hundreds outside these plants for the opportunity to work there.

      Comparatively speaking, prisoners in the US doing 'hard time' making license plates, and working with dangerous chemicals and getting paid just a couple of dollars a day are VASTLY more underpaid.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Lets get the inevitable comment out of the way

        You blew it if you're using prisoner work as a reference.

        Truth of the matter is that Foxconn is way above average in China. The real shit goes on at smaller companies outside the public's eye. You know those that make the other 90% of electronics.

        1. DRendar

          Re: Lets get the inevitable comment out of the way

          Oh, I wasn't trying to compare Chinese workers to prison workers, nor was I knocking the use of prison labour. I actually think that we should be doing it in this country too. They should contribute to society rather than just being a further drain upon it, but that's another conversation...

          What I was getting at is that US prison labour, is actually far closer to actual slavery than that which goes on in Foxconn.

          I take your point though.

      2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: Re: Lets get the inevitable comment out of the way(DRendar)

        I guess the OP was trying to make the point that pretty well any story about Apple and hows its kits gets made will get a comment about using 'Slave Labour' somewhere along the line.

        You will also get comments about 'Foxconn Suicides'.

        This is despite the fact that the Foxconn workers get paid pretty well (comparitively) and that the suicide rate is lower than many US Cities. This does not deteer the Anti Apple birgade one jot.

        As we are talking about Chinese workers etc, the BBC Documentary the other night made interesting watching. Chinese wages have risen so much in recent years that for a couple of companies (at least) it is now more commercial sense to actually do the manufacturing here in the UK and not in China.

        Nearly Friday 'Beer O'Clock' time.

        1. dssf

          Re: Lets get the inevitable comment out of the way(DRendar)

          Something similar happened when Haier opened up a plant in South Carolina:

          http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/news/international/china_america_full.fortune/

          (very long story/report)

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'll just leave this here

    "Shenzhen is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with a provincial GDP of US$42 billion -- that's more than some countries such as Guatemala and Lebanon, and four times more than Iceland.

    Meanwhile, China's millionaires keep millionairing -- it won't be long before there are 1 million U.S. dollar millionaires in the country, guided by Shenzhen's philosophy: if you can't make a million, make a billion."

    Source: CNN, March 2011

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'll just leave this here

      "Shenzhen is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with a provincial GDP of US$42 billion -- that's more than some countries such as Guatemala and Lebanon, and four times more than Iceland."

      Shenzhen's GDP might be four times more than Iceland, but it's population is around 35 times more than Iceland's...

  4. Jeebus

    Organs you say.

    I have a feeling the market for human organs is about to boom significantly.

    1. dssf
      Joke

      Re: Organs you say.

      Especially for Mission Control, who'll be on the wrong side of relativity when Alpha-Centauri-bound ships are on the move... Wanna outlive other people? Find a way to travel at greater than .5C, hehehehe. Of course, a navigational error could mean there won't be even .1 cc of you left to find...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Slow morning eh Reg?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Must be slow for you too if you're here posting this. Not much going on at Jackasscomments Inc?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Whereas you, who take time out to criticise the person who's posted a pointless comment, must be really busy...

        I'll out the kettle on.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          You do that and leave some water for me too. Make yourself useful.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            I'm surprised you lot are allowed to use kettles.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Oh, I'm not allowed to plug it in. That would need a grownup and I haven't seen one of those for a long, long time so I just pretend.

              Milk and sugar?

  6. Ally 1

    Things are improving over there. Foxconns profits dropped a bit despite more business, mainly because of the increase staff benefits they were forced to provide

  7. GNoMe
    FAIL

    Jaundice is caused by the liver not the kidney. :)

    1. FunkyEric

      So now they're selling livers to buy iPads as well are they? Well I suppose when you've flogged your kidney you have to move on to some other body part :-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Thankfully then i'm not a doctor...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re shitpeas

        No, but you're quite clearly a racist. No. It was funny.

  8. ElNumbre
    Joke

    Offshoring..

    RE The subtext - "Need to send money to California may puzzle locals";

    Have they never heard of offshoring? Foxconn have simply offshored their finance to the US by taking over a small desktop computer manufacturer called Apple.

  9. nichobe

    Supply chain issues

    i think not...

  10. h3

    Store manager - degree and 5 years experience WTF

    The Apple ethos is totally against people capable of thinking for themselves so its a strange move.

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