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Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

reuters.com

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Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#111
post #67
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be more push back against goods made in non-democratic countries like Vietnam, and not just against Made-in-China. My previous phone was a Samsung Galaxy S5 and I was surprised to find out that it was made in Korea. Manufacturing in Korea certainly didn't seem to harm Samsung's financial prospects back then, and the phone wasn't any more expensive than its Made-in-China competitors. I have zero reservati…

China is particularly problematic because they are huge and powerful. I agree it would be better to use democratic countries instead, but since that's not gonna happen, I'm glad companies are at least moving to smaller countries.

As long as the Electoral College is there, the US is not democratic either.

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why more producers haven't made this move? If Vietnam is there as far as infrastructure goes and they have the skilled/unskilled labor why is this not a more popular move. Also when we say "make" I assume we mean "assembles". Somewhat anecdotally I recently purchased a laptop and tried to find one that wasn't made in China and it was nigh on impossible.

Go to Japan. A number of Panasonic, Fujitsu & Sony laptops are made there that are only ever sold in the domestic market because of the high costs. Though for the build quality they are still not too bad in terms of value. Of course their displays and RAM are probably made in Korea or China as are the SSDs and I've never pulled one apart to check the motherboard and battery providence... However they are definitely a…

Japan's economy fascinates me. The vast majority of the cars you see on the roads, computers in offices, TVs in hotel rooms, cameras in people's hands etc are Japanese. Amazing self-sufficiency in a world where globalisation is becoming the norm. Japanese-made products are also pretty universally considered to be very well designed and built, too.

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reeks of whataboutism. IP theft is problematic and nobody has ever engaged in it to the extent that China has. The Chinese intelligence apparatus is actively engaged in IP theft as well.

IP theft does not exist. IP is an invalid concept and can not exist in a free society.

Agreed. The whole 'IP theft' story is bullshit and founded on an intellectual fiction (that ideas can be property).

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that how Samsung grew during the 90s? Japanese companies outsourced to them, and basically trained their competitors. Manufacturing in Korea during the 90s just accelerated the rate of IP theft. It was like that in Japan during the 80s too. I wonder which country will be after China.

It's also how the US grew in the 18th century, by stealing IP from the global technological leader, Britain (who stole a great deal from India).

Considering we're all just going to end up "stealing" each others' technology in the end anyway, it strikes me that it might be much easier if we all just collaborated in the first place.

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that how Samsung grew during the 90s? Japanese companies outsourced to them, and basically trained their competitors. Manufacturing in Korea during the 90s just accelerated the rate of IP theft. It was like that in Japan during the 80s too. I wonder which country will be after China.

This reeks of whataboutism. IP theft is problematic and nobody has ever engaged in it to the extent that China has. The Chinese intelligence apparatus is actively engaged in IP theft as well.

> This reeks of whataboutism ... nobody has ever engaged in it to the extent that China has.

I hope you see the irony (hypocrisy?) in this statement.

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#116
More and more companies are leaving China because manufacturing there has become way too expensive. China is focusing on the ultra-high-tech sector in their manufacturing growth strategy now. They are also generally turning away from manufacturing and towards a service economy.

10 years ago, I was working for a European electronics manufacturer producing in China. The Chinese production facility was already outsourcing low-level manufacturing steps to Eastern Europe because even 10 years ago China was already becoming too expensive and Eastern Europe was a better choice for unskilled labour.

Interestingly, most countries trying to move away from China have massive issues finding better manufacturing locations even though China is becoming ever more expensive.

Nothing compares to China in terms of infrastructure, know-how and quality. My current company tried setting up a plant in Vietnam but gave up after 3 years of trials because it just doesn't measure up to overall cost-effectiveness and ease of operations in China even though Vietnam is often celebrated as "the new China" nowadays.

Different countries have different specialties they can excel in (e.g. certain SEA nations that are great at textile manufacturing) but despite their government's efforts to make their countries more attractive, they just can't compete. China will be able to up those prices ever further for quite some time and others will only slowly move away from them. They are confident it will last until 2040 (when they want to be the number 1 ultra high tech research and manufacturing country).

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#117
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know Britain exploited the hell out of India as a colony, but what IP did they steal? Or did you just mean stolen resources?

Stolen resources.

India had advanced steel making, ship making and textile technologies which were taken by the British.

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#118
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond your last point on concentration camp, the US isn't a shining example of "imprisons, and sometimes kills," and "systematically destroyed peaceful cultures" either. And the bail system where poor people can be held for not having money to post bail is akin to decentralized concentration camps around the country. That you can say is a stretch, but you get the point.

Oh, typical "What about US?" answer, bravo.

What's wrong with reminding people (who are probably from the US) that their government is worse? The whataboutism that I see most on Hacker News is Americans complaining about the Chinese government, while their own country has a horrible record when it comes to human rights (Iraq War) and democracy (regime changes organised by the CIA).

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#119
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who exactly outsourced to Japan?

The US.

I think you will find it went the other way around. Japan even had foreign currency quota and ownership limits just like China does today.

Frontline: Coming From Japan [The Fall Of The US Television Industry] (1992) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aesJTsZqm6c and sadly now paywalled article https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1990/09/30/j...

"September 30, 1990. HOW DID Japan destroy the American television industry? The secret history of that strategy reveals how Japanese manufacturers and the Japanese government first created an anti-competitive cartel ..."

also https://www.jstor.org/stable/43294946

Re: Samsung ends mobile phone production in China

#120
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The US only. Well, also Japan. Also, Korea. I guess also much of Europe too. Or Canada. But, yeah other than that. Which I guess is really just India and China. So I guess the reason is median/mean income??

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share... Adding Huawei+Xiaomi+Oppo+Vivo alone counts 45% of the world smart share already, by units, and the others consisting ZTE/Lenovo and other Chinese brands as well. Safe to say the Chinese phones are already 50% of all phones shipped. Yes, it is pretty dominating. Had not for the Trump ban, Huawei would probably dethrone Samsung in EU as well, according to…

You said "US is by far the only market that Chinese phones haven't dominated"

So Chinese phone manufacturers making up 1/3 of the European market, as per your link, is them dominating it??? Chinese phones don't dominate worldwide in the sense of geography. They dominate worldwide in the sense of units because they are the low margin, budget phone manufacturers supplying lower income parts of the world. Not a bad place to be, but doesn't remotely support your assertion above that the US is the only market they don't dominate. That's obviously wrong just from your own sources.

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