back to article Cheaper Apple iStuff? Foxconn eyes costs-busting Indian move

Taiwanese multinational and Apple device manufacturer Hon Hai/Foxconn is planning to expand into India, opening roughly ten factories and date centres by 2020, according to Indian government officials. Reuters reports the touted move may lower prices in "the world's third largest smartphone market where [Apple] trails Samsung …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Might be the opposite by 2020

      A place for the very few Indian women of marriage age to pick and chose from lonely hacker suitors.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-selective_abortion And to be more exact

  2. Dazed and Confused

    Wage inflation

    Reminds me that years ago I did some training for an Indian out sourcing company. I commented that the company I was working for was moving more and more stuff to Bangalore, the guys laughed and said they could do Birmingham cheaper than Bangalore. There will always be somewhere cheaper.

    1. jelabarre59

      Re: Wage inflation

      > ...the guys laughed and said they could do Birmingham cheaper than Bangalore. There will always be somewhere cheaper.

      Yeah, Poughkeepsie NY, the Detroit of the northeast <g>. There ain't *nothing* there now. If it hadn't been for the Beast of Armonk having set up shop there in the 1940's, Poughkeepsie would already be tapering off it's latest resurgence (because it was dying in the late 1930's/early 1940's otherwise).

  3. Wolfclaw

    Apple lowering prices, yeh good one, made me laugh !

    1. Wyrdness

      Apple is lowering prices for Apple. There's little chance that they'll lower prices for us.

      1. WonkoTheSane

        Came here to say exactly that. Thanks for saving my fingers!

    2. Lusty

      Apple have consistently been lowering most prices for the last 10 years from what I've seen. They certainly never enter the cheap zone, but prices have definitely gone down overall.

    3. paulf
      Holmes

      Apple reducing prices because their subcontractor moves the assembly factory to a cheaper location would only lead to a cut in the selling price if there was any connection between the final selling cost and the cost of assembly/BoM. As is often suggested in these very forums it's unlikely such a direct connection exists.

      1. Lusty

        Indeed, Apple seem to choose prices based on aesthetics of the number rather than any connection to the priciest cost. Even when they reduce prices they always land on X99. Cunningly in the US the price is a rounded number before tax, and in the UK it's a rounded number after tax. They aren't the only ones obviously, but this makes it clear that reduction at manufacture won't necessarily change retail. But as I said above, they do reduce prices all the time, no idea why I was downvoted, it's a fairly straightforward fact to verify. Presumably someone who thinks Apple is still overpriced, but I fail to see why I should be held responsible for that!

        1. jonathanb Silver badge

          In Hong Kong, they seem to always land on a price point of x88, no sales tax there to worry about.

          1. Lusty

            8 is a lucky number to them so that makes sense. Never occurred to me that it would be different elsewhere!

  4. JaitcH
    Happy

    Samsung chose Ha Noi and now ...

    we have three damn great factories there.

    And the salaries are competitive with India.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hands

    It's a well known fact that Indian kids hands are much smaller than Chinese kids hands.

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Lt. Tirebiter
      Facepalm

      Re: Hurry, hurry .... Step right up - FREE RAPE or being LIT ON FIRE!!!

      While we, of course, have neither rape nor murder-under-the-guise-of-law-enforcement here in the States (or in China, or anywhere else for that matter)? Pot, meet Kettle.

  7. emmanuel goldstein

    "Cheaper Apple iStuff"

    No. More profit for Apple.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another example of an evil corporation trying to screw over their workers. Foxconn in China pays it's workers dirt level wages. In a previous article, Apple, one of the most profitable corporations in world history, only pays $8 in direct wages to make an Iphone so don't expect Iphone prices to drop any great amount! They are using free trade agreements to find the country that has the lowest wages and a work force willing to work under slave labor conditions. The 1920's all over again.

    1. Sean Timarco Baggaley

      Apple pay Foxconn to build their stuff. Last time I checked, Apple did not own Foxconn. These are Foxconn's employees, not Apple's. Apple aren't even Foxconn's biggest client.

      Also, the value of wages needs to be considered in context: 8 bucks might barely cover two coffees in the US, but it goes much, much further in China. That's why Foxconn and Quanta have no shortage of willing workers queuing up to work for them.

      This is a pattern that has repeated itself a number of times in recent history. Even the UK went through this phase.

  9. Gray
    Trollface

    There is one place cheaper

    Literally a few million American prison inmates, a large percentage of whom are "employed" as Prison Industry workers. Most are making office furniture for government contractors. Just one of the perks of the increasingly privatized US prison industry.

    But then again, it would be a lousy public relations hit for Apple. Nobody cares about offshore economic slavery, but when it's Uncle Fester in a California prison ... that hits a little too close to home.

    1. skeptical i
      Devil

      Re: There is one place cheaper

      Prisons R Us will just promote their cheap labor service as "job training" for inmates, giving them skills so they can land jobs upon release. Not, of course, that they're likely to be released to a Chinese or Indian sweatshop location, but no plan is perfect.

    2. x 7

      Re: There is one place cheaper

      If Apple offered for sale globally products manufactured by prison labour they would be in breach of the Geneva conventions. I nearly got caught once on a big contract purchasing a pharmaceutical intermediate from China - we did a last minute site quality audit and found the manufacturing site was actually an army-run prison labour camp. If we'd carried on with the contract we'd have got instant go-to-jail cards

  10. Alan Denman

    re -" Any move to India.....to lower the price of its iconic mobile devices"

    A bit ambiguous.

    Apple have dramatically lowered prices already. They already buy mid range parts at ultra low cost. It is only a few bits they make themselves, such as the CPU that is considered high end.

    The ambiguity there is in who benefits. It is certainly not the consumer. It is about sky high profit margins.

    1. x 7

      Re: re -" Any move to India.....to lower the price of its iconic mobile devices"

      get it right......what you mean is "Apple have dramatically lowered costs already"

      Prices are what they SELL at, what they purchase are costs - at least in this context

  11. J__M__M

    Have fun, China

    So does Detroit have a sister city in China?

    1. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: Have fun, China

      So does Detroit have a sister city in China?

      Chongqing

      They make a lot of motorbikes there, and Ford Motor make stuff there too.

      1. x 7

        Re: Have fun, China

        god forbid that their music exports become as successful as Detroit's........

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like