iPhone » M.I.C. Gadget

Suicides Return, Foxconn Workers Forced to Work Long Hours in Silence

Star Chang, May 1, 2013 8:57 AM, 1,282 views, 14 Comments »,

Foxconn has found itself once more embroiled in a suicide scandal after two apparent staff suicide attempts within four days were witnessed by workers from the company’s Zhengzhou plant in central China’s Henan province. The two factory worker, one male and one female, attempted suicide by jumping from buildings between April 24 and April 27. The man has died, while the fate of the woman remains unknown. Sources claim that the Zhengzhou factory entered “silent mode” from the beginning of April, restricting workers from discussing anything unrelated to work while on company premises. Many workers have complained about the new rule, which some believe is related to recent media reports about Foxconn products not meeting quality standards …

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Apple Authorized Service Providers in China Get Messy, One Maintenance Point Serving 80,000 Users

Star Chang, Apr 14, 2013 4:02 PM, 415 views, Got something to say ?,

Apple authorized service providers in China have not implemented the company’s revised after-sales policies, and some have publicly opposed them. Apple promised that all repairs to faulty devices will be carried out using new parts and repaired devices will offer a new 1-year warranty from the service date. The new policies have met a mixed reception from those who have to carry out the work, however, one major reason being that there is a serious over-demand for phone repairs. Apple currently has only eight directly run maintenance points located in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen. Due to the limit of Apple Stores in the country, it has further authorized more than 500 maintenance points in over 270 China cities. According to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, China is expected to sell as many as 40 million iPhone in 2013 alone, which means one maintenance point in China is serving nearly 80,000 users. Among the expected 40 million new iPhone users, it still doesn’t include the large number of devices from grey market …

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More Chinese Ancestors are Becoming Apple User in Heaven

Randy Cheung, Apr 8, 2013 12:43 PM, 489 views, Got something to say ?,

During China’s annual Qingming Festival, also known as “Tomb Sweeping Day,” Chinese people repair and clean the graves of dead relatives as part of an ancient custom to ensure a peaceful afterlife. They also leave offerings of food, fake money and liquor. Under Mao, the practice of leaving offerings to the dead was suppressed, but it was quickly reinstated once he was no longer in power. In 2008, the festival was made a national holiday, and last year 520 million Chinese visited cemeteries – almost all bearing some kind of gift. Traditional gifts include fake money and paper bags of clothing. But in recent years, people are now giving paper representations of TV sets, washing machines, houses and luxury cars. With the popularity of Apple products in China, cardboard representations of popular mock Apple products have gone to the top of the gift list …

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Are Chinese Authorities Plan to Pull Down Apple’s Superior Standing in China ?

Star Chang, Apr 1, 2013 1:50 PM, 383 views, Got something to say ?,

Chinese media outlets have been heavily attacking Apple’s business practices in the country, following the previous report on Consumer Rights Day produced by state broadcaster China Central Television. The latest gripe has come from government’s mouthpiece the People’s Daily, which has been railing Apple for five consecutive days since March 25. The Chinese news agency went on attacking Apple’s tax avoidance, citing a New York Times report (Chinese netizen unable to surf the NYT website …) published last year about the company saving billions of dollars in taxes in several US states. In its most recent report, it even called the US company “arrogant.” Over 3.8 million users have forwarded or commented on the issue through Chinese social media, some shared their negative experiences concerning purchases of Apple’s products, while many others questioned the motive behind the smear campaign against Apple …

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Chinese Students Get Into Debt For Buying Apple Gadgets

Star Chang, Mar 24, 2013 9:55 AM, 521 views, Got something to say ?,

Over 20,000 college students in Wuhan city have taken out high-interest loans to buy high-end electronic products, mostly Apple devices. From January 2012 to the end of February this year, these young adults have applied for loans worth a total of 160 million yuan (US$26 million) from private finance and investment companies. They have taken loans with heavy annual interest rates of up to 47 percent on 12-month terms. The agency approves loans quite differently from a normal Chinese bank, with the firm processing the application takes only half an hour time. About 90 percent of the credit was used to buy Apple products such as iPhones and iPads, and other high-end electronic gadgets …

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Chinese Shopping Website to Compensate Over US$70,000 for Selling Returned iPhones

Star Chang, Mar 24, 2013 12:50 AM, 431 views, Got something to say ?,

A Chinese shopping website has to compensate two customer US$76,950 for reselling iPhones that were returned for defects. The website, Dangdang.com, had sold twenty iPhone 4 to two Beijing man surnamed Chen and Song last August at 4,850 yuan (US$780) per phone. The two man suspected the iPhones were not genuine because of the color of the packaging, so they sent all their goods to Apple for verification. After checking, nineteen of the phones were verified as returned defective unit, while the serial number of another could not be located in Apple’s database, suggesting a fake. Chen and Song initially contacted Dangdang for compensation but their request was denied, though the company agreed to refund them if they could provide Apple’s test reports as proof …

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Rumor: Pegatron will Start to Produce Less-pricey iPhone in May

Star Chang, Mar 5, 2013 4:09 PM, 912 views, 1 Comment »,

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Pegatron – which produces some Apple products (iPad mini) alongside primary gadget builder Foxconn – has been commissioned to build a rumored less-pricey iPhone. According to the Taiwan-based newspaper Commercial Times, Pegatron will begin the pilot production for a low-cost version of iPhone in May, before Apple’s new products hit the market in the third quarter. Pegatron is forecast to ship about 40 million devices of the new iPhone model, whose price could be reduced to as low as US$350 (unlocked, contract-free) by adopting a plastic casing, also in conjunction with a choice of different colors. The iPad mini already have had a significant effect on sales of the full-size iPad. iPad mini is on pace to outsell its bigger brother. Market watchers believe the same ‘eroded effect’ might also occur in the iPhone series if a new cheaper iPhone is going to release this summer …

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Chinese Apple Users are Taking Their Risk to Repair iPhone and iPad by Themselves

Star Chang, Mar 2, 2013 12:15 PM, 1,181 views, Got something to say ?,

Savvy operators in China are making money by selling iPhone’s components and DIY maintenance kits as iPhone owners whose warranty has expired are taking to repair their devices themselves rather than taking in to Apple stores which charge hefty repair fees. Over at Taobao.com, the most popular online marketplace in China, there are thousands of Chinese vendors offering all sorts of iPhone components ranging from batteries, cameras, casings, screens and audio cables, along with full detailed instructions on how to carry out the repairs. The business has appeared alongside the growing number of complaints on Apple’s after-sales service. In China, when an iPhone is out of warranty, Apple will not replace individual parts alone, only faulty parts along with the handset’s motherboard and battery …

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Did Lesser Demand of iPhone 5 Cause Suspension in Hiring of Foxconn Workers ?

Star Chang, Feb 20, 2013 3:59 PM, 561 views, 5 Comments »,

[UPDATE] According to Financial Times report, Foxconn has imposed a recruitment freeze this week across most of its factories in China. Human resources officials at Foxconn’s largest factories, local government officials and external recruiters working with the company said there had been internal notices to halt hiring until at least the end of March, in response to reduced orders for the iPhone 5. Recruiters said hiring has stopped for the iPhone and production lines in Shenzhen and Zhengzhou. Taiyuan, which makes iPhone parts, and Chengdu, which makes the iPad, were also putting a freeze on hiring. The suspension in hiring by Foxconn is the first such countrywide move since the 2009 downturn, prompted by the financial crisis. No large recruitment take place also give us a hint that there will be no Apple major new product coming soon …

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Why China Has More Demand on iPhone Jailbreak than the U.S.

Star Chang, Feb 13, 2013 5:23 PM, 1,926 views, 3 Comments »,

According to the statistics from pod2g’s iOS blog, Internet users in China are the top visitors of the Web site offering jailbreak tool, evasi0n, followed by the United States and France. Nearly 3 million Internet users from China visited the site, accounting for 20.12 percent of visitors. The country with the second-most number of visitors was the United States with 2.5 million users, contributing to 16.88 percent of traffic. The popularity of evasi0n jailbreak is tremendous. Within the first 10 minutes of released last week, it saw over 100,000 downloads. And now it had crossed the 1.7 million mark. China is widely seen to have a high software piracy rate, though the government has been working hard to improve intellectual property rights protection. It is to believe the piracy of desktop software will slowly reduced, the unhealthy practice may now shift to mobile sector …

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