Apple: Scrubbing may not yet have cleansed iThings of BLOOD Apple has admitted that it does not know whether some of the materials used in its products are sourced from conflict zones. In a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it admitted that four smelters and refineries whose products it uses have not yet definitively proved their materials do not come from war- …
All of those smelters don't meet any emission regulations that first world companies would have to meet. That's why Apple sources from them, for the reduced cost of manufacturing, not for it's social conscience. I hope SEC makes them bleed.
The same applies to most smelting or casting operations these days, that's why all those jobs went offshore.
Reduced or eliminated regulations = Reduced Costs
Newsflash commentard Apple doesn't source from any of the smelters directly - its their suppliers suppliers suppliers.
Also has it not occurred to you that the smelters are placed near to where the resources are - whilst I'm sure there are a few in the west too - it just depends on the distribution of the relevant ores.
Sorry, the remaining smelters are a shadow of the former businesses that were once available in the US. Have you any experience in the smelting or casting industries? I think not. I know because I sold environmental controls for years.
There are almost no smelters left here in the USA because of the environmental regulations and resulting cost that Apple has avoided by sourcing from polluting smelters. Ore transport is still international, it all revolves around regulations.
And since you OBVIOUSLY bite, from the poisoned fruit or elsewhere, you should understand your premise that Apple doesn't have control of it's sources directly is WRONG.
Why else would the Securities and Exchange Commission be investigating Apple for sourcing from smelters that are from "Conflict Regions"? Read the last paragraph of the article and you might learn something. You can't tout "Conflict Free", lie and get away with it.
"Why else would the Securities and Exchange Commission be investigating Apple for sourcing from smelters that are from "Conflict Regions"? "
Its not, read a little wider and you will learn even more ...
As Apple is a US company, it has to file audits with the SEC under provisions of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Section 1502 (“Dodd-Frank”) on conflict minerals. I sure over coming months we will see filings from IBM, Microsoft, Intel, HP and Dell.
This is also why the SEC doesn't care about what Samsung or Nokia, or Sony or Nintendo etc etc
And my 2c - if really was THAT a big deal the corporations would be trumpeting being conflict free it far and wide
I hope you realize that despite the sensationalist troll-bait Reg headline, Apple is way out in front of most of the industry in even having completed third party audits to determine the ultimate source of the materials their suppliers use.
Go see if you can find guarantees from Samsung that all its smartphones, computers, TVs, etc. use only conflict-free materials. Here's what they say on their web site:
Samsung Electronics will continue its best efforts to bar the use of conflict minerals in all of its products – in collaboration with its suppliers and relevant domestic and international organizations.
Which sounds worse to you? "Best efforts" or "We've completed third party audits on all but four suppliers, who tell us they're conflict-free but it won't be proven until those audits are completed or we remove them from our supply chain".
Did they? The same kind of audits that Walmart uses for child labor on it's clothing?
What a joke. FWIW you don't tout or advertise what can't be accomplished. There are no certainties in ANY supply chain. "Best Efforts" are at least more honest.
Where is the FIRST party audit if Apple were really serious about being "conflict free"? Nowhere, because "third party audits" give plausible deniability and keeps the answers at arms length from the questions.
All this amounts to is sanctimonious hipsters trying to feel better about their ridiculously overpriced purchase of something no one really needs. They would be better off giving away the cash they spent on the iShiny if they want to feel good AND do good. How does your purchase make you a better person? Only in Applespeak-marketing BS!
We need to be looking at other consumer electronics vendors on this subject as well. As much as I like to make fun of Apple's often cult-like self importance, and as much as their intellectual property machinations deserve outright derision, deriding one vendor in isolation "ain't cool".
Though Apple have been in the spotlight for their assorted shenanigans of late , on this issue they're not alone. There will be loads of everyday consumables, tech & otherwise, using raw materials from conflicted or less than desirable sources.
If sourcing materials from conflict zones is a concern for people, perhaps a little investigation into the source of that conflict and those involved in it's instigation and perpetuation might help with their buying decision (if it's a moral issue for them). The chain of events can be surprisingly (and disturbingly) circular.
If the corporate & the consumer want a better deal for their stuff, they're going to have to sit with that consideration. Unavoidable, really.
They are right in that near nothing is made in the worlds major conflict zone, that being the USA.
They wage war on near everyone who does not do their bidding. Heck, even banks doing business there have to abandon their customers and oil companies have to supervise US contractors 200%.
Its a lucrative billion dollar fine business creating trade conflict.
Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, and a horde of other hardware manufacturers who source their manufacturing and materials overseas.
And we wait, in interest, for a comparative study of multiple hardware manufacturers for their across the board controls, assurances and hardware manufacturing processes together with their third party suppliers.
That would be investigative journalism.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
