In what is rapidly becoming an International Public Relations, Marketing and Sales nightmare for Apple Computer — the world’s largest and wealthiest corporation, with a market capitalization value of at least US$2.356 Trillion — Chinese citizens in Zhengzhou, China, known colloquially as “iPhone City” for its massive manufacturing facilities owned by Foxconn, which are contracted with Apple Computer, of Cupertino, California, to manufacture the iPhone 14, and other Apple-branded consumer computer hardware — have gone on strike after having been brutally beaten by Communist Chinese police over a reneged promise made to prospective and new employees by Foxconn for their pay.
The iPhone 14, Apple’s latest and greatest model, which retails from US$799 to $1,599.00 for a top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro Max model, is now “behind the power curve” on holiday sales leading up to, and immediately after “Black Friday,” when many American customers nationwide reported an inability to find the product in stores, or online. The phrase is an aviation-related one, which colloquially means to be in a situation in which circumstances are beyond a locus of control, and any extra effort to play “catch up” only gets worse with each successive attempt.
“Black Friday,” of course, refers to the day immediately after Thanksgiving (which always occurs on a Thursday) in which retailers experience their greatest sales, which for many, if not the exceeding majority, accounts for a significant portion of their annual profitability, and places them “in the black,” rather than being in an indebted, or profitless condition, which is referred to as being “in the red.”
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, official portrait
The events in China’s “iPhone City” couldn’t have come at a worse time for Apple.
Matters are further complicated by the Communist Chinese government’s mandatory “shutdowns” of all public business operations, and public intercourse.
Again, ALL of this is completely outside Apple Computer’s locus of control. Yet, there are some thing that Tim Cook could do to minimize, or ameliorate, any damages, now, and in the future.
Naturally, the problem is not limited exclusively to Apple Computer, and rather, is the initialization of an avalanche-like, cascading chain of events which will reduce Apple’s profitability, as well as that of retailers nationwide.
Beyond that, it further reemphasizes what has been continually been an increasing point of contention in the United States, which is the “outsourcing’ of American manufacturing jobs — the most notable of which is China — to nations where there are little-to-no labor laws, practically non-existent workplace safety laws or regulations, and certainly no wage standards, and neither minimum wage laws, nor collective-bargaining labor unions to represent the employees’ interests.
In short, it is the moral equivalent of — and for all practical purposes is — slave labor, because the employees in factories in China, overseas, and in other developing nations, have no rights, nor opportunity for redress of grievances against their employer as in the United States. It is capitalism run amok. And the worst part of it all, is that it originates from within the United States.
We are now living in an era and age in which Read the rest of this entry »
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