Manufacturing Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Foxconn plans to build five Brazilian factories to produce Apple products

by Steven Sande (Jan 31st, 2012)

Apple relies on electronics assembly firm Foxconn to build iPads and iPhones in China. Now Foxconn is reportedly planning to build five new factories in Brazil to help meet the demand for Apple products. There's already one plant cranking out iPads and iPhones, and each of the new factories is ...

Why Apple's products are 'Designed in California' but 'Assembled in China'

by Chris Rawson (Jan 22nd, 2012)

Look at the back of your iPhone, or your iPad, or on the bottom of your Mac. You'll see the following words embossed somewhere: "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." Many Americans, all the way up to the President himself, have wondered why Apple has outsourced virtually all of ...

Apple now the number one buyer of microphones in the world

by Mike Schramm (Jan 19th, 2012)

Apple purchased a whopping 349 million micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) microphones last year to put in all of its various iOS devices, which means it is now the biggest purchaser of such microphones in the world. That number grew 173 percent from 2010 to 2011, putting Apple up over ...

Foxconn doubles factory size to meet iPhone demand

by Mike Schramm (Dec 27th, 2011)

Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is growing again, with recent reports stating that the company is doubling the size of one of its production lines in order to keep up with production for current and future Apple products. The Foxconn Science Park in Zhengzhou is undergoing a $1.1 billion ...

Ultrabook manufacturers look to plastic as Apple commandeers supplies

by Chris Rawson (Nov 21st, 2011)

Intel's new "Ultrabook" initiative designed to help PC manufacturers churn out MacBook Air clones has hit a snag. According to Digitimes, Apple has gobbled up almost all of the available capacity for producing unibody aluminum parts, which it uses to build the chassis for its notebooks. ...

Exploring Apple's supply chain secrets

by Steven Sande (Nov 4th, 2011)

One of the unsung heroes in the success of Apple over the past ten years or so has been the ability for the company to take control of manufacturing, procurement, and logistics of its products in ways that are completely innovative. In a Bloomberg Businessweek post yesterday, writers Adam ...

Brazilian iPad production may be more costly than expected

by Steven Sande (Oct 31st, 2011)

A Reuters story in the New York Times yesterday noted that iPad producer Foxconn's plans to move iPad production to Brazil may be slowed by higher than expected production costs in the South American country. Brazil had touted the fact that they had lured Foxconn to the city of Jundiai to ...

Catcher hopes to have MacBook Air plant working by November

by Steven Sande (Oct 21st, 2011)

A supplier of MacBook Air aluminum casings, Catcher Technology, recently had to shut down a plant in Eastern China following complaints by neighbors of "strange odors" emanating from the facility. While this could have been a concern for a critical part of the supply chain for one of Apple's ...

Foxconn reportedly producing 150k iPhone 5s a day

by Mike Schramm (Sep 8th, 2011)

A report from Taiwan's Digitimes says that Foxconn is churning out the unannounced iPhone 5 hardware at an alarming rate -- over 150,000 units a day. That's crazy, and it means Foxconn is racing to get shipments up to 5-6 million units total by later on this month. All of Apple's contractors are ...

iPhone prototype N94 leaked, possibly to be an iPhone 4S

by Mike Schramm (Aug 29th, 2011)

There are lots of crazy rumors flying around about the new iPhone announcement coming later on this year (or as soon as next month), but this is one of the more credible. The picture above comes from a site called UbreakIfix through our friends at Engadget, and purports to show a prototype for ...

Apple's hold on metal chassis supply chain hinders competition

by Steven Sande (Aug 4th, 2011)

Apple's wild success with unibody construction for all models of the MacBook appears to be having a negative effect on the competition in more than just reduced sales -- the other vendors can't get their hands on the CNC (computer numerical control) lathes that are required to make ultra thin ...

Apple's supply demands could affect Amazon tablet production

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jun 30th, 2011)

According to Digitimes, Amazon is shopping around for manufacturers to supply touchscreen panels for its rumored upcoming tablet. The retail giant has supposedly approached TPK Holdings, Wintek, HannStarr Display and J Touch. Two of the four manufacturers, TPK Holdings and Wintek, currently ...

Japanese newspaper reports Apple picked Toshiba as sole LCD supplier

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 20th, 2011)

A Japanese newspaper report suggests Apple has chosen Toshiba as the sole supplier of its LCD displays for the iPhone. Earlier this year, a circulating rumor suggested Apple had invested US$1.2 billion in a Sharp-owned LCD production plant. The plant would go online in 2012 and provide Apple with ...

Apple reportedly to absorb costs from Japan tragedies

by Dave Caolo (Mar 31st, 2011)

As Japan's people and industries respond to the recent horrible disasters, routine electrical brownouts are being rolled out to conserve available resources. Manufacturing is being affected as a result, and the tech industry is not immune. DigiTimes reports that Apple will absorb the extra cost ...

Apple reportedly yet to order iPhone 5 parts

by Mike Schramm (Mar 28th, 2011)

If you're excited to buy the iPhone 5 this summer, you might want to relax a bit. Reports from China are saying that Apple hasn't even started securing the parts for a brand new version of the iPhone, which would mean that there's almost no way a new version could be released this year. ...