The Great Debate UK
from MacroScope:
The iPod – the iCon of Chinese capitalism
Walking past Apple's sleek shop along London's Regent Street on Sunday, my wife asked me what I wanted for Father's Day.
"An iPad?" I ventured, half-jokingly.
"Are you sure you want one? Don't you care how they're made?" came her disapproving reply.
She was, of course, referring to the rash of suicides among Chinese workers at Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer of Apple's much desired iPads and iPhones.
The deaths prompted the company to raise salaries and cut working hours but lingering concerns over conditions for its over 1 million workers in China were underscored by a plant explosion last month that killed at least 3 people.
Workers like those who live and work in Foxconn's sprawling Chinese facilities have long been the backbone of the country's vast manufacturing sector which churns out a torrent of consumer goods for export.
But the recent labour unrest that has erupted in parts of China suggests that this low-cost export-fuelled growth model may be wheezing towards its expiry date.
Google calls time on the Age of Windows
-Tom Dunmore is Brand Director & Editor-in-Chief at Stuff magazine – Stuff has over 1 million readers worldwide. The opinions expressed are his own.-
Google announced on Wednesday that it was developing its own computer operating system. It will be secure, fast, lightweight and – most of all – free. And it presents the biggest challenge yet to the long-standing dominance of Windows.
The idea behind Google ChromeOS is nothing new – it’s built on a Linux foundation and will no doubt share many of the features of other open-source operating systems. But Google is the only computing brand with more might than Microsoft: it’s trusted, and has a proven track record of building brilliant, free services, from search to instant messaging.
Indeed, Google has been busily chipping away at Microsoft’s market for some time, with the Google Docs suite of in-browser applications providing a decent (and free) alternative to Microsoft Office, while the Android mobile phone software has pulled the rug from under Windows Mobile.
Microsoft’s attempts to strike back by stealing some of Google’s lucrative internet search advertising market have had little success – hence the rebranding of MSN as Live search, and the subsequent replacement of Live search with Bing.
But Microsoft’s core business is the Windows operating system that powers nine in ten of the world’s computers. By launching against Windows, Google is declaring out-and-out war – and doing so when Microsoft is at its weakest.
I think a lot of home computing users would welcome a solid competitor to Windows. The attitude at Microsoft is altogether too preditory and anti-customer to suit me, and their operating system software is weak, buggy, expensive, and VERY vulnerable at best.
I happily anticipate a new, linux-based op system that supports existing windows applications as well as the many good freeware apps out there. And I happily anticipate a solid competitor for Microsoft. Who knows? — with a true competitor, perhaps even Microsoft will become customer-oriented.
If Google (or anyone else) comes up with a solid new operating system which is easy to use, and compatible with existing windows applications, I will be among the first to give it a try — and I’d expect many others will react the same way.
Thank you for your comment.
Apple is working with Foxconn to prevent more worker suicides, including auditing the Chinese plants of its supplier to ensure conditions comply with its standards.
The point of my blog is that the iPod is an interesting prism through which to view China’ economy and gauge its shift in emphasis from manufacturing and exports to domestic consumption.
At first glance, the iPod encapsulates China’s manufacturing prowess. It is able to assemble very sophisticated products at a cost that is low enough to attract global companies. So much so that these Made-in-China iPods and iPad contribute to the trade surplus in China’s favour against the U.S.
But a closer examination of the iPod story also reveals the limitations of the Chinese model. The country remains far behind in innovation and doesn’t own the intellectual property behind many of the products it exports.
A University of California study, for instance, found that the iPod accounted for almost 41,000 jobs worldwide in 2006, of which only 30 jobs were in manufacturing in the US.
But more than two thirds of all the wages paid to workers in the iPod value chain were estimated to have been paid to US workers.