The Man Who Makes Your iPhone • Hacker News Board

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#21

Post by mechanical_fish » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 6:37 AM UTC

It's like this guy has been stalking me my entire life:

... he bought a couple of plastic molding machines and started making channel-changing knobs for black-and-white televisions. His first customer was Chicago-based Admiral TV, and he soon got deals to supply RCA, Zenith, and Philips (PHG).

My family owned an RCA black-and-white TV in the seventies. This guy made the knobs for my childhood TV.

Gou's first break came in 1980 when he started supplying Atari with connectors that linked the joystick cable to its 2600 video-game console.

I remember that connector very well. What 2600 owner could forget them?

And the story just goes on like that, I'm sure. My iPhone is the spiritual descendent of those old things.

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#22

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 6:59 AM UTC

elai wrote: post #7

So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?

[deleted]

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#23

Post by yread » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 7:11 AM UTC

dsspence wrote: post #14

elai wrote: post #7

So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?

The United States Army has a suicide rate of 20.2/100,000. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/suic-j06.shtml

Of course! These people are in a war! They get slaughtered, they slaughter, they can get woken up anytime by a crazy ally shooting everybody! They can't trust even most common items as they can be stuffed with explosives. They can't trust the locals because they might be after them.

Would you like your workplace to be like that? I mean, I hope that there is no workplace as stressful as a war.

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#24

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 7:23 AM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #9

elai wrote: post #7

So %0.0012 (11/920'000) of their workforce has committed suicide? What is the average percentage of suicide deaths in that age range in china?

Significantly higher than that, from what I understand. It's actually one of those unfortunately 'uninteresting' headlines that will just never make headlines: "Foxconn suicides significantly below national averages." Remember: newspapers and blogs are in the selling eyeballs business, not in the reporting news business.

[deleted]

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#25

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 8:11 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #24

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significantly higher than that, from what I understand. It's actually one of those unfortunately 'uninteresting' headlines that will just never make headlines: "Foxconn suicides significantly below national averages." Remember: newspapers and blogs are in the selling eyeballs business, not in the reporting news business.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#26

Post by alexandros » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 8:49 AM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #12

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significantly higher than that, from what I understand. It's actually one of those unfortunately 'uninteresting' headlines that will just never make headlines: "Foxconn suicides significantly below national averages." Remember: newspapers and blogs are in the selling eyeballs business, not in the reporting news business.

Well, to be fair, these people commited suicide at work and sometimes left notes pointing to their failures at work while working 7 days a week for 15 hours a day. I don't personally think this story is just media hype. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-05/25/c_133... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100039883/wha... From the linked Telegraph article, "For those who believe the spate of s…

Shall we tally up attempted suicides in the general population also?

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#27

Post by ZeroGravitas » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 11:37 AM UTC

chaosmachine wrote: post #3

"When Apple's iPhone4 was nearing production, Foxconn and Apple discovered that the metal frame was so specialized that it could be made only by an expensive, low-volume machine usually reserved for prototypes. Apple's designers wouldn't budge on their specs, so Gou ordered more than 1,000 of the $20,000 machines from Tokyo-based Fanuc. Most companies have just one."

Anyone else find it odd that they didn't see this coming?

It's either scarily bad planning on Apple's part (let's not rule it out given their white iPhone 4 woes), or scarily bad journalism trying to turn "buying new machinery to manufacture a new part" into something exciting.

Even if you count only the first month of US sales that's only $7 per iPhone.

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#28

Post by timruffles » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 12:17 PM UTC

Fascinating. Since it seems from the article that smaller companies are less worker friendly, and people are literally desperate to work for Foxconn, it's hard not to see Gou as a good thing for China & the Chinese.

A business epic...

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#29

Post by timruffles » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 12:18 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #12

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significantly higher than that, from what I understand. It's actually one of those unfortunately 'uninteresting' headlines that will just never make headlines: "Foxconn suicides significantly below national averages." Remember: newspapers and blogs are in the selling eyeballs business, not in the reporting news business.

Well, to be fair, these people commited suicide at work and sometimes left notes pointing to their failures at work while working 7 days a week for 15 hours a day. I don't personally think this story is just media hype. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-05/25/c_133... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/malcolmmoore/100039883/wha... From the linked Telegraph article, "For those who believe the spate of s…

"these people commited suicide at work" - they live at work, in dormitories.

Re: The Man Who Makes Your iPhone

#30

Post by theycallmemorty » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 1:26 PM UTC

> The two were married on July 26, 2008, at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Taipei. During the reception, Gou mounted the stage, shed his tuxedo jacket, and did 30 pushups to prove his virility. Nine months and four days later, Delia gave birth to a daughter, Hsiao-ru.

That gave me a chuckle.