“Assembled in China”: where Apple produces its equipment

Almost everyone dreams of purchasing an Apple device, but for some, the price becomes an insurmountable obstacle to their dream. Many users do not buy phones from official Apple dealers. This is primarily due to the fact that the price of such gadgets is much cheaper, and in addition, you can get the coveted iPhone much earlier than it appears in official stores.

But do not forget that when buying an iPhone through the Apple website or in the official store, you will definitely receive a PCT - a device that is specially adapted to work in your country. If you purchased the phone from a “gray” dealer, then you may encounter a number of problems.

Where are iPhones made?

As trivial as it may seem, the place of manufacture of the main part of the iPhone is. China. It is in the Celestial Empire that famous American smartphones are assembled, as well as most of the world’s electronics. But this device also contains elements of American assembly. The thing is that the process of creating a new iPhone is a multi-stage process.

Where are iPhones designed?

The production of an iPhone begins with design, like any device. And now it is actually being implemented in the USA. As well as the development of the main part of the software, including iOS, the design of the device, the development of logistics and pricing. Design takes place directly at the head office of Apple Corporation, which is located in Cupertino.

It is about designing in the USA that the inscription that can be found on the back of any iPhone “Designed by Apple in California” speaks.

iPhone assembly location

Direct assembly of the iPhone is carried out in China, at the world's largest electronics production plant located near Hong Kong in the city of Shenzhen. It belongs to the Taiwanese company Foxconn. According to experts, this plant has produced nearly 40% of all the world's electronics in recent years.

The size of this plant is amazing - 5.6 million square meters. km, and the total number of employees is 1.25 million people. Every day, this mega-enterprise produces more than 400 thousand new iPhones - and this is in addition to other electronics.

Information about the place where the iPhone was assembled became very important several years ago, when rumors arose about difficult working conditions at the factory. There was information about the use of child labor, meager wages and the slave status of workers. Due to this, Apple Corporation's reputation has also suffered in the public eye. But her inspection did not reveal any serious violations.

Why is iPhone assembled in China?

iPhones are assembled in China for the same reasons as almost all modern electronics. Firstly, labor is very cheap there. Secondly, China contains more than 90% of the proven reserves of rare earth metals, which are used to produce batteries and other electronics. And according to Chinese laws, it is almost impossible to export these metals in their raw form - only if you produce something from them.

Beware, fake!

Almost any modern popular technology is produced not only in the form of originals. It is often counterfeited. Therefore, it is important to know who the iPhone manufacturer is.

belongs to the USA. And fake Apple devices are most often produced in China, Taiwan and Finland. And distinguishing them from original gadgets can be problematic. If a buyer sees “Made in China” on an iPhone, don’t panic. After all, as we have already found out, some components of Apple devices are actually produced in China, and not in America. Therefore, you will have to take a good look at the phone. And only after that should we say that what the buyer is looking at is a fake.

How much does an iPhone actually cost?

Apple never publishes information about how much the components of an individual device cost. But such expert publications as IHS Markit regularly calculate the price of parts and the entire device on their own. In 2016, they found that the cost of all parts, including the processor, cameras and other hardware, was only $220. This amount included the cost of assembly. At that time, 220 dollars equaled 13 thousand rubles, and the iPhone itself in Russia cost more than 50 thousand.

The easiest way to demonstrate pricing is using the iPhone7 as an example.

• A10 Fusion processor – $26.9.
• Intel module – $33.9.
• Cameras – $19.9.
• Electromechanical components – $16.7.

Even if we take into account transportation costs, we can say with confidence that the cost of modern Apple iPhones is greatly inflated. However, this can be considered a payment for the brand.

Source

Analyzing the data

So, we found and checked the initial data. Now let's start studying the information hidden behind the codes.

First, we enter our serial number - F2LNCRWBG5QR into the search engine on the website - https://www.chipmunk.nl/cgi-fast/applemodel.cgi. As you can see, this iPhone was produced in 2014 at the Chinese Foxconn plant. This means that this is definitely an original device.

A used gadget can be further checked by connecting it to a computer and launching the proprietary application – iTunes. Select iPhone in the list of devices and click the Browse tab. The program will display basic information about the smartphone. But this is what checking on the manufacturer’s special resource gives - checkcoverage.apple.com. Here you can enter both the IMEI and the serial number in the search field - the data produced by the system will look the same. A green check mark next to the first item on the list is a guarantee that this iPhone was purchased legally. True, the one-year technical support period for it has already expired, which means that the smartphone was purchased and activated more than a year ago. When purchasing a 6s, the warranty must be valid, because... iPhones in this series were released quite recently - in mid-September.

In addition, by the serial number you can immediately identify a restored (or refurbished) smartphone - in this case, the prefix 5K is added to the standard code. There is often an additional discount on such gadgets, and if the restoration work was carried out at the manufacturer, there is no need to worry. However, if such a gadget does not have the same IMEI codes on the case, box and settings, it is possible that it was assembled illegally - from several broken or sunken original devices. There is no need to even talk about the reliability of its operation, much less about purchasing it.

It also makes sense to find out for which country the selected iPhone is adapted to understand whether such a gadget will work in your home country.

So, for example, models created for the markets of mainland America support 16 LTE networks, European or Asian models support up to 20 LTE, and these are almost all operators in the world.

So, to find out which country the phone was manufactured for, look for the model/batch number (again, on the box or in the settings of the iPhone itself). We are interested in the letters before the fraction at the end, in our example it is RU. It is not difficult to guess that Russia is meant. This means that this smartphone has been tested for compliance with PCT requirements and will most likely work with all national operators. To determine the code for other countries, use the table below.

Based on the table, the iPhone considered as another example, with the LL sign next to the model number, was created for sale in the American market. Finally, we note that automatic free services do not always correctly display information about the iPhone. But this does not mean that all other methods described are also unreliable. For greater confidence, use all possible verification methods to ensure that you do not buy a counterfeit or a locked (stolen, repaired) device.

Where do they make it?

Apple products are famous for their high quality. Users associate this with the “noble origin” of iPhones and iPads – they say they are made in the civilized country of the USA. Find out if they are right by reading this article.

Domestic users of Apple devices believe that their mobile phones come from the USA, Japan, Taiwan - anywhere, but not from China. Russians have long had an extremely negative image of Chinese production - as if they do everything “on the knees”, in conditions of terrible unsanitary conditions and prefer quantity to quality.

This is actually a misconception. In China, the situation is the same as in other countries (for example, in Russia): there are underground production facilities that assemble penny devices from low-grade components, and there are also official factories whose assembly lines produce first-class products.

Apple produces the iPhone and iPad in cooperation with China, but this is by no means a reason to hang offensive labels on Apple devices.

Where are the original iPhones designed?

iPhones and iPads are developed at Apple's head office, which is located in the American state of California, in the city of Cupertino. This is confirmed by the inscription that is present on the back edges of all Apple devices: “ Designed by Apple in California

».

The following activities are performed at Apple headquarters:

• Software creation (iCloud, iTunes, iOS).
• Design development for Apple gadgets.
• Planning of marketing and advertising events.
• Logistics planning.
• Pricing.
• Quality control of finished products. Apple takes final quality control very seriously - this is why the percentage of defects among products is minimal.

Mobile market experts claim that 99% of the total contribution to the creation of Apple gadgets is made by the employees of the Cupertino office - despite the fact that many of these employees have never seen how the devices are assembled.

Project development

Apple is the leader in phones and other devices. It is this organization that develops projects to create unique mobile products.

Apple is an American company. The headquarters of the organization is located in California, in the state of Cupertino. Here, designers, programmers, advertising managers, economists and other workers are working on the development of new Apple devices.

Accordingly, the iPhone manufacturer is the USA. It would seem that everything is simple. In reality, understanding the topic being studied can be problematic. After all, developing gadget projects is only half the battle. Devices must be assembled, tested for functionality, and components must be produced. These functions are not always performed in one country.

Where are iPhones assembled?

The plant of the Taiwanese company Foxconn is where iPhones are made for Russia and other countries. The Foxconn plant is located in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. He has been collaborating with Apple since 2007. Apple is not the only Foxconn partner; a giant Chinese factory produces almost 40% (!) of the world's electronics.

The Foxconn factory area is 5.6 million square meters. km, number of employees – 1 million 250 thousand people. Every day, 400 thousand new iPhones roll off the Foxconn assembly line, each of which fully meets the high standards set by Apple.

Foxconn has been repeatedly accused of forcing its employees to work in truly slave-like conditions. Chinese workers allegedly spend 12-14 hours at work, 6 days a week, eat rations of food sold on the streets, and are also discriminated against by their Taiwanese colleagues. Apple conducted many audits, which resulted in the discovery that most of the accusations of violation of labor laws are unfounded.

Buyers often wonder: why doesn’t the Apple company produce gadgets in its own country? There are many reasons for this:

• Americans are too highly educated. In the United States, there is a shortage of citizens with secondary technical education who are able and willing to perform routine, monotonous operations every day.
• Chinese labor is quite cheap. The salary of a Foxconn employee is 300 – 400 dollars per month. An American would have to pay four or five times more.
• The USA has high taxes. If iPhones were assembled in America, then due to additional insurance and taxes, the final cost of the Apple product would be doubled.
• China produces the lion's share of rare earth metals, which are necessary when creating mobile gadgets. If Apple were to move its smartphone production to another country, it would have to negotiate exports with China—not an easy task.

Foxconn has factories not only in China, but also in other countries - in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and India. In 2010, the factory was opened in Russia - in the village of Shushary, Leningrad Region. Now there is information that Foxconn is going to build a plant in the USA. Who knows - perhaps this is the first step towards starting the production of native American iPhones?

Who is the manufacturer?

Quite often the iPhone says Assembled in China. However, every person should know who the real iPhone manufacturer is. It is also important to understand for which region a particular device is intended. After all, there are some differences in the operating systems of Apple devices. They depend on the country for which the phone was originally intended.

How to find out the manufacturer of an iPhone? You need to look at the back panel of the device, as well as the box with the device. It indicates both the country of production and the region for which the product is intended.

You can turn on the device and open the menu “Settings” - “General” - “About device”. Here you will have to visit the “Model” section. The last pair of letters in the number is the country of origin. This combination must match the inscription on the box with the smartphone.

Here are some signature options:

• RS - Russia;
• T - Italy;
• PR - Moldova, Russia;
• TA - Taiwan;
• LL - America;
• KS - Sweden, Finland;
• J - Japan;
• E - Mexico;
• CH—China;
• B - Ireland, UK.

In fact, everything is not as difficult as it seems. The main thing is to thoroughly understand the topic being studied.

Who supplies components for iPhones?

Workers at the Foxconn plant assemble iPhones from components that are sourced from many countries. There are no Chinese components in Apple devices, but there are American ones. Among them:

• Audio chips are manufactured in the USA by Cirrus Logic.
• Radio modules are produced by the famous company Qualcomm.
• Controller chips are created by American organizations PMC Sierra and Broadcom Corp.
• Touch Screen Controllers – Also manufactured by Broadcom Corp.

Other components are supplied by European and Asian manufacturers - for example:

• Induction coils - Japanese company TDK.
• RAM - Taiwanese organization TSMC.
• Gyroscopes - Italian-French company STMicroelectronics.

The situation with iPhone displays is interesting. Now 3 companies produce this component for the Apple company - Japanese Japan Display and Sharp, as well as Korean LG Display. However, for the iPhone 8th and 9th modifications, Apple plans to purchase panels only from Samsung - and in huge quantities.

Among the suppliers of components for the iPhone there is a “full” international. Apple prefers to work with trusted and reputable component manufacturers, regardless of the countries in which their factories are located.

Difference from fake

Which iPhone manufacturer is better? It is generally accepted that only original Apple phones are distinguished by their quality. Customer experience often confirms this fact. But there are also very high-quality fakes.

In any case, the following features will help you distinguish the original iPhone:

1. This Apple phone does not support additional memory.
2. Original Apple devices do not have the ability to work with multiple SIM cards.
3. The cost of a fake is often lower than that of a real Apple smartphone.
4. When you connect a real iPhone to a PC via iTunes, the devices are synchronized. In the case of fakes, the smartphone will not be recognized by the software.
5. If you try to open the AppStore, fake Apple devices will open Google Play. Original Apple devices do not support such a service.
6. The operating system of Apple smartphones is iOS. Counterfeits are most often controlled by the Android base.
7. Real phones from a company called Apple have no translation problems. No hieroglyphs, typos or errors. Their presence indicates a fake.
8. The original devices on the back panel have the following inscriptions: Assembled in China, Designed in California. The model number and certification mark will also be written here.
9. The back panel of a real Apple smartphone is not removable. In order to disconnect it, you will have to unscrew the production screws.

In addition, the fake (usually Chinese) iPhone has a USB or USB-mini charger, as well as a retractable antenna. Similar components are missing from real iPhones.

Having remembered all the listed principles and rules, everyone will be able to understand whether the phone in front of them is a fake or an original. A first generation iPhone or a newer device is not so important. The main thing is that the listed principles are relevant for all Apple smartphones.

What is the cost of an iPhone?

Experts from IHS Markit, immediately after the release of the iPhone 7 in 2016, tried to calculate the cost of an Apple device by adding up the costs of all its components, including:

• A10 Fusion processor – $26.9.
• Intel module – $33.9.
• Cameras – $19.9.
• Electromechanical components – $16.7.

According to expert calculations, the cost of the iPhone 7 turned out to be equal to 220 dollars (approximately 13 thousand rubles). The market value of the Apple gadget at the time of inspection was $649 - 37 thousand rubles at the current exchange rate. It is worth saying that this price was relevant for the USA. In Russia, the seventh iPhone even now costs 50 thousand rubles. It’s easy to calculate that in our country, the rate of promotion on Apple devices is almost fourfold.

It is curious that the difference in cost between iPhones of different generations is very small. Let's look at the diagram:

The cost of the iPhone 7 is only $8 higher than that of the iPhone 6S – in fact, 500 rubles. Gadgets of the same generation, but of different modifications (for example, 5 and 5S), as a rule, require equal costs for components. But what was most surprising was that the iPhone SE turned out to be the most economical smartphone in the Apple line (cost price: $160). Even the iPhone 3GS was more expensive to produce.

Which countries are involved in the creation of the iPhone?

iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max disassembled.

The lion's share of parts and components for the new iPhones are manufactured outside the United States.

This is understandable: it is much easier and more economical to pay an enterprise that specializes in producing the necessary equipment than to build your own factories in the States.

So here is a short list of countries, a piece of which is in every Apple smartphone:

China (Hong Kong, Taiwan).

This country is at the top of the list because it not only makes a bunch of components, but also assembles gadgets at Foxconn and Pegatron factories.

Cables, glass, batteries and connectors are made in Hong Kong. The production of chips, camera lenses, metal body elements, printing of boxes and instructions is located in Taiwan.

iPhones are assembled at factories located in both cities.

Europe.

The production of semiconductors, antenna modules, and charging components is carried out by 16 companies throughout Europe, from Hungary to Switzerland.

Singapore.

Electronic components, chips, plastic parts of antennas and mechanical parts such as screws are supplied from here.

Japan.

In the most technically developed country in the world, screen-related components are made for the iPhone: sensors, display panels, gauges and other complex parts.

Saudi Arabia.

In this country, components for Apple equipment are made that require petroleum products.

In the USA, about 44 companies are also directly involved in the creation of the Apple smartphone: motherboard components, processors, small parts, chips and connectors are churned out here.

Diversity of Opinions

In reality, answering the question at hand is not as simple as it seems. After all, today people have different opinions about where Apple gadgets are produced.

What opinions can you find? For example, some say that the iPhone manufacturer is Malaysia, while others claim that original Apple devices are produced in the USA. There are also those who claim that the gadgets under study are produced in Finland or Taiwan.

All these are misconceptions. Usually, ignorance of information about the country in which the gadget is manufactured leads to the fact that a person can easily be sold a counterfeit. This lack of awareness benefits fraudulent manufacturers. Next, we will talk about where the iPhone is actually created, and we will also figure out how to distinguish an original device from a fake one.

Budget devices

As already mentioned, an iPhone (whose country of origin is Taiwan or China) is a very high-quality copy, since these countries are directly involved in the production of the original. Therefore, there are many Chinese, but decently made “Apple phones”. Externally, most of the replicas are practically no different from the Apple original. If you just want to show off your iPhone, then it’s unlikely that anyone will catch you replacing it without holding it in your hands.

But they can issue a copy:

• materials that are of lower quality and cost compared to the American version;
• name - some Goothone i5s, for example;
• the inner shell of the smartphone, which is noticeably weaker than the real one and runs on the Android platform, stylized as iOS;
• external design of the device (quality of plastic, metal and glass);
• camera quality.

How it all began

The country of origin of the iPhone is America, everyone knows this. The world famous company Apple and the legendary Steve Jobs released and developed this gadget. They conceived it and brought it to life. What can you say about mass production?

When the iPhone became popular, few people were interested in the country of origin. In Russia, they heard about it at the stage of the release of the fourth generation of the phone, when it was purchased by ex-President Dmitry Medvedev. And since then, for six years now, the demand for the gadget has only been growing in the domestic space.

Meanwhile, the creators, in order not to lose demand, are releasing new series of the “Apple” gadget.