Amazing how they use WeChat for everything and how someone's word has value in the negotiations. They hardly use paper, receipts.
How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
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Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#82Really well edited video. Shenzen seems like a crazy awesome place. One thing I noticed was how he would never haggle on the price. He would always accept straight up say yep ok. Either the prices were really good...or being an American he's not so used to the idea of having to haggle the price (or maybe he felt order size was too small to warrant a haggle). However when in Asia always and negotiate, otherwise you're…
No- under these circumstances you don't haggle. They mostly sell quantity to people they know, they are stopping real business to be polite and do him a favor. Likewise, if you buy 5 switches in SEG, it's going to be like $2 and it's just not the time for it. Source- Shenzhen local.
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#83I haven't watched the video - but I'm curious where and how he got a 4G LTE module cheaply. I've never found one via Ali Express or TaoBao, but maybe I didn't use the right keywords (or maybe they aren't available as modules?). The best I've been able to find are 3G modules; the 4G ones I have found (from one or two US suppliers) tended to be extremely expensive. EDIT: NVM all - downthread it was explained what this…
Aside from your edit: I have heard (but cannot back up) that there are sometimes things you can buy in person in Shenzhen but not on Taobao. It's hard to believe though.
Not a lot, usually what happens if it's grey to sell it there are special keywords used or you just ask the TB store owner on PM.
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#84As a Shenzhen local, I'd consider this video one of very few that present a 100% accurate view of the local hardware and market culture. It's very well done and everything he says is correct and that's unusual.
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#85Ha! I met Scotty (the man featured in this video) in Bali, Indonesia about 1.5 years ago. We wound up crossing paths a few more times at a hackerspace after I moved to SF. As you can imagine, he's an incredibly focused but personable guy. Hope to see more videos like this!
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because quality increases when Apple repackages Chinese components in a shiny white case.
Definitely. Apple should add many QA steps filtering out the vast majority of bad parts. First there would be incoming QA on any received shipments. And any well run assembly line contains many check steps to make sure the unit has good constituent parts. This way you don't burn good parts farther down the line on a unit that was never going to pass. Then there is out going inspection and burn in testing. All that te…
Nail on the head. Some people have a very naive view of manufacturing, QC and supply chains.
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#87There are very few YouTube videos that I particularly enjoy watching, this was one of them. Interesting topic, well filmed given the market circumstances, clear audio, and well edited.. and it definitely didn't hurt that I'm currently learning how to design and build electronics from scratch as a hobby ;)
You might like this video about Shenzhen too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#88On top of that 300, add R&D costs, marketing, assembly and shipping and you could very well justify the hefty price we pay for the iPhone. I am actually surprised it cost this much to make custom.
Yep. In the video comments, he says he spent well over $1000. Justifies the $300 price tag by stating that he didn't need the $700+ worth of parts and tools he purchased. > Strange Parts 4 hours ago > Thanks for subscribing! I spent well over $1000, but a lot of that was parts and tools I didn't end up needing. I'd say it's probably around $300 worth of parts in the actual phone. Source: Direct link to comment: https…
The extra parts cost was from a dead end where he was going to attempt to populate a bare PCB with the various chips etc. Eventually he found someone that told him just how many boards he'd have to make before he'd get a working board trying to do it by hand.
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#89The video should have included the costs for the components as he purchased them as it constantly left me wondering.
He answered in a comment. It was about 300 USD in parts but he's not sure because he'd spent a lot of money gearing up to try to populate a bare logic board pcb by hand before someone talked him out of it.
Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]
#90As a Shenzhen local, I'd consider this video one of very few that present a 100% accurate view of the local hardware and market culture. It's very well done and everything he says is correct and that's unusual.
That really means a lot, especially coming from you. I tried really, really hard to accurately portray Shenzhen and the markets, and it's nice to hear from a local maker that I've at least partly succeeded. Thank you:)