Amazon announced 18,000 job cuts, Apple’s share price fell below $2tn (£1.7tn) and there was more bad news from Tesla: it has been another tough week for big US tech firms. But this has not been a one-off. The ongoing drama at Twitter since its takeover by Elon Musk in October has taken place against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty, retrenchment from aggressive expansion plans and China’s disruptive transition from Covid lockdowns to rocketing case numbers as restrictions ease. In fact this week’s events have been a continuation of…
Tag: Apple
Zero-Covid policy is costing China its role as the world’s workshop
The anti-lockdown unrest gripping China has forced the authorities in Beijing to respond by easing some restrictions in big manufacturing centres, as they map out a “new stage and mission” in the country’s deeply unpopular zero-Covid policy. There are concerns that more freedom of movement could allow the virus to rip through a population where immunity is lower than in the west. Those health risks mean the “world’s workshop” is heading for a difficult winter, casting a shadow over the prospects for international trade. Western companies have learned lessons from…
Workers in running battles with police in protests at largest iPhone factory in China
Police in China have dealt out beatings to workers protesting over working conditions and pay at the biggest factory for iPhones, as the country tries to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases. Videos online showed thousands of people in masks facing rows of police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields. Police kicked and hit a protester with clubs after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to strike him. People who made the footage said it was filmed at the site. The protest in Zhengzhou lasted…
Protests break out at Covid-hit iPhone factory in China
Large-scale protests broke out at Foxconn’s vast iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, central China, images circulating on Weibo and Twitter appeared to show. Videos on Wednesday showed hundreds of workers marching on a road in daylight, with some being confronted by a row of riot police and people in hazmat suits. Some videos showed workers complaining about the food they had been provided while others said they had not been paid bonuses as promised. One clip take from a livestream showed dozens of workers at night shouting, “Defend our rights! Defend…
Supply fears as China lockdown hits world’s largest iPhone factory
Chinese authorities have announced a seven-day coronavirus lockdown in the area around the world’s largest iPhone factory, stoking concern that production will be severely curtailed ahead of the Christmas period. Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, which employs about 200,000 people, produces the majority of Apple’s new phones, including the new iPhone 14. It has been rocked by discontent over stringent measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, with workers fleeing the site over the weekend after complaining about their treatment and provisions via social media. Nearby cities have drawn up plans…
TechScape: What’s really behind Apple’s shift from China
This week, the first iPhone 14s rolled off Apple’s newest production line in Chennai, India. I understand why that doesn’t seem like huge news. The company has been assembling phones in India for some time, all of which serve the large domestic market. But it’s an important milestone, marking the first time Apple has produced a new iPhone outside of China in the same year it was released. It is also an important step in one of Apple’s most sensitive projects: to decouple its fortunes from those of Sino-American relations.…
Apple shifts some iPhone 14 production from China to India
Apple has begun making iPhone 14s in India, as it moves some production away from China for the first time against a backdrop of Chinese Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and geopolitical tensions between the US and the country’s communist government. A production line in Chennai has begun operation, assembling the iPhone 14 for the domestic Indian market. The move, which marks the first time the company has assembled iPhones outside of China in the same year they were released, is part of a plan to disentangle its manufacturing operations from the…
TechScape: suspicious of TikTok? You’re not alone
What’s the problem with TikTok? It’s a harder question to answer than it seems. The social video app, which has joined Facebook/Instagram, YouTube and Twitter in the list of societally important social networks, is frequently spoken about with an air of suspicion, and it’s not hard to guess why: the app’s Chinese roots loom large in the conversation. (ByteDance, which owns TikTok, insists that it is headquartered in the Cayman Islands, one of the only instances I’ve seen of a company deciding that loudly proclaiming its paper HQ is located…
iPhone maker Pegatron halts Shanghai production due to Covid lockdown
Key iPhone maker Pegatron has halted operations at two subsidiaries in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan, as global supply chains feel the pinch of Beijing’s strict zero-Covid measures. The business hub of Shanghai has become the heart of China’s biggest Covid-19 outbreak since the virus surfaced more than two years ago. The city of 25 million has remained almost entirely locked down since the start of the month. “We have temporarily suspended work,” said Pegatron in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The Taiwanese firm…
Tim Cook reportedly signed five-year $275bn deal with Chinese officials
Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, signed an agreement with Chinese officials, estimated to be worth about $275bn, to placate threats that would have hobbled its devices and services in the country, The Information reported on Tuesday. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The five-year agreement was made when Cook paid visits to China in 2016 to quash a host of regulatory action against the company, the report said, citing interviews and internal Apple documents. Cook lobbied Chinese officials, who believed the company was…