News tagged ‘China’

Thousands of Foxconn workers responsible for assembly of the iPhone 5 have gone on strike today, objecting to strict quality control standards that were raised by Apple and Foxconn to address issues related to scratching and other blemishes on the iPhone 5 casing. The new standards turned out to be extremely difficult for workers to produce phones satisfying those requirements.

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Bloomberg has recently provided an interesting glimpse of Steve Jobs' role in Apple's mapping effort. The project has been a number of years in the making but which only now has made its way into the public's hands. The report claims Apple's mapping effort was Jobs' idea. He wished Apple to move away from using Google’ Maps on iOS devices.

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Today Apple published a press release saying that iPhone 5 saw record-breaking pre-orders of more than two million units in the first twenty four hours of availability. The performance breaks iPhone 4S record that saw one million units pre-ordered during the first day of availability. Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller said:

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According to a report from The Telegraph, Apple will likely discontinue the iPhone 3GS once it introduces the new iPhone at next week’s media event. The report also said that Apple will likely introduce an 8 GB iPhone 4S with a middle price point as it did with the iPhone 4 last year.

“The new update will mean that the 8GB version of the iPhone 4 will be the entry-level iPhone, probably given away free on £20 per month contracts, as the 3GS is currently”.

The Telegraph also notes that iPhone 5 will come in three different capacities, probably the same 64 GB/32 GB/16 GB line seen with the iPhone 4S.

Moving the iPhone 4 into the position that is currently occupied by the iPhone 3GS would allow more carriers to offer a free iPhone, because the iPhone 4 is sold in both CDMA and GSM versions while the iPhone 3GS is only offered in GSM version.

The iPhone 3GS would probably be most missed by customers who want to buy contract-free smartphones. Currently Apple sells contract-free, unlocked iPhone 3GS for $375 in the U.S. and at higher prices in other countries such as $455 in China. If the company elected to continue selling the device along with its three other iPhone models, it would have to cut the price even further.

Vietnamese website Tinhte.vn posted the video, showing what is allegedly a totally redesigned pair of Apple in-ear headphones. The  site also notes that the product will likely be introduced either alongside the sixth-generation iPhone. The site claims that the new headphones are manufactured in Vietnam in a Foxconn plant as cable labeling reads "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in Vietnam." The in-ear unit is somewhat a departure from current earphone models from Apple, featuring a truncated teardrop shape that is supposedly more comfortable than the gratis set supplied with the iPhone.

A translation of the video is provided below:

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The protective third-party cases allegedly designed to fit Apple's rumored "iPad mini" were discovered and highlighted on Friday by Giz-China.com. The cases show a space on the back for a rear-facing camera at the top left of the device that suggests that like all other portable iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPod touch, the smaller iPad will feature a rear-facing camera.

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This time Digitimes confirms a previous report claiming that Apple has started production of the next generation iPhone 5 in China. The Taiwanese industry sources told Digitimes that Pegatron had begun production of a new version of the Apple iPhone at its factory in Shanghai.

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The next-generation iPhone 5 is not released yet, but the demand is already high. The handset is expected to be one of the line’s biggest updates since it was introduced, 5 years ago.

According to a new report some Chinese resellers are taking advantage of the hype, by taking pre-orders for the phone.

Reuters reports:

“Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) next-generation iPhone has not even been released yet, but opportunistic sellers on China’s largest e-commerce platform, Taobao, are already accepting pre-orders, complete with mock-up pictures and purported technical specifications.”

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Apple has placed 55th on Fortune's Global 500 Top Companies, an annual list of the world's biggest corporations. Apple moved up the list from 111th place last year. Samsung placed 20th. Top 3 are Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Walmart.

Here is the full list:

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Apple today announced the new iPad will arrive in China on Friday, July 20th.

The new iPad features a stunning new Retina display, Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life while remaining amazingly thin and light.

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Rumors about the 7.85-inch "iPad Mini" continue to surface. Now Japanese blog Macotakara claims that iPad Mini will be manufactured in Brazil and production will ramp up in September.

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Chief Executive Officer Terry Gou of Foxconn told its stockholders during the annual meeting on Monday to disregard Samsung's recently-released Galaxy S III smartphone and wait for the upcoming iPhone 5 instead, mentioning a number of strategies that will allow the company to "beat" Samsung within the next three to five years.

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DigiTimes reports that demand for Apple's redesigned line of 2012 MacBooks is so strong that Apple’s component suppliers are facing a labor shortage as they racing to produce enough parts to supply the Mac maker's production lines.

"Component manufacturing plants in eastern China have been suffering from labor shortages for a long time, and although May and June are the IT industry's traditional slow season when shortage issues are usually not as significant, the strong orders from Apple's new MacBook are leaving many upstream makers unable to satisfy demand."

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Check out this video that takes a look inside Foxconn's iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, China.

Interesting, each production line in the Zhengzhou plant is 148-meters long, consists of 80 workers, and produces 10,000 iPhones every day.

Take a look:

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