Tag: Apple Inc

iPhone Factory Protest Challenges China’s ‘Zero Covid’ Rules

Chin@Strategy

In an iPhone factory in central China, thousands of workers clashed with riot police and tore down barricades. In the southern city of Guangzhou, protesters broke out of locked-down buildings to confront health workers and ransack food provisions. And online, many Chinese raged at the authorities after the death of a 4-month-old girl, whose father said access to medical treatment was delayed because of Covid restrictions. As China’s harsh Covid rules extend deep into their third year, there are growing signs of discontent across the country. For China’s leader, Xi…

Chinese Government Steps In to Help an Apple iPhone Factory

Chin@Strategy

Apple’s largest iPhone factory, in the city of Zhengzhou, has been beset with production problems caused first by a Covid lockdown and then by a shortage of workers. Now, that plant is getting help from an unlikely source: the Chinese government. Officials in central China have tapped the government’s vast network of party members, civil servants and military veterans to help Foxconn, the Taiwanese-based assembler of Apple’s iPhones, with its recruitment drive. They called on them to “respond to the government’s call” and “aid in the resumption of production” at…

Apple Earnings: iPhone Powers Growth, but Signs Point to a Slowdown

Chin@Strategy

When Apple released the 16th version of its iPhone in September, some tech reviewers described it as an incremental improvement over earlier models. Apple’s customers didn’t care. They bought the new iPhone 14 in droves. On Thursday, the world’s most valuable company said that strong demand for iPhones helped it increase total revenue by 8 percent to $90.1 billion for the three months that ended in September, bringing an end to a fiscal year in which it posted sales gains every quarter. The company reported that profits rose nearly 1…

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Chin@Strategy

(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday. 1. Voter fraud prosecution is rare, erratic and often undeserved. As part of our Democracy Challenged series, The New York Times reviewed some 400 voting-fraud charges filed since 2017. Often, voters didn’t know they’d broken a law. Serious penalties usually fell hardest on those least able to fight back: Poor and Black people were likelier to go to jail than comfortable retirees. In Florida, where the governor, Ron DeSantis,…

Big Tech Reconsiders the “Made in China” Way

Chin@Strategy

Looking beyond China This month, Apple is expected to release the iPhone 14. Beyond rumors, little is known about what the crew from Cupertino, Calif., has planned for the company’s newest version of its nearly ubiquitous smartphone. But there is one major change that most consumers will probably fail to notice: A small but growing number of the latest iPhones will be manufactured outside China, report The Times’s Daisuke Wakabayashi and Tripp Mickle. That’s a big change for Apple, and it is not alone. After years of growing their Chinese…

Tech Companies Slowly Shift Production Away From China

Chin@Strategy

In the coming weeks, Apple and Google will unveil their latest generation of smartphones, jockeying to distinguish the new devices from previous models. But one of the most significant changes will go largely unnoticed by consumers: Some of these phones will not be made in China. A very small portion of Apple’s latest iPhones will be made in India, and part of Google’s newest Pixel phone production will be done in Vietnam, people familiar with their plans said. The shift is a response to growing concerns about the geopolitical tensions…

How Lockdowns in China Have Further Bogged Down the Supply Chain

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — China’s mounting Covid-19 restrictions are creating further disruptions to global supply chains for consumer electronics, car parts and other goods. A growing number of Chinese cities are requiring truck drivers to take daily Covid P.C.R. tests before allowing them to cross municipal borders or are quarantining drivers deemed to be at risk of infection. The measures have limited how quickly drivers can move components among factories and goods from plants to ports. Shanghai and other major Chinese cities have imposed lengthy, stringent lockdowns to try to control Covid…

Wave of Omicron Infections Prompts Lockdowns in China

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — Several of China’s largest factory cities have ordered a lockdown, halting production of Toyota cars and Apple iPhones. Theaters, cinemas and many restaurants have closed in Shanghai. The northeastern province of Jilin on Monday banned its 24 million residents from leaving the province or traveling between cities. China is grappling with its largest surge of Covid-19 infections since the coronavirus first emerged more than two years ago in central China. Sustained outbreaks in two-thirds of the country’s provinces are proving the toughest test yet of China’s zero-tolerance coronavirus…