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General discussion

Apple TV Shipping Directly from SHENZHEN CN

Jun 4, 2007 11:51PM PDT

I ordered a Apple TV 160GB unit on Apple.ca on June 4th, 2007 and promptly received an email indicating the unit was picked up by Fedex in SHENZHEN,CN. I knew Apple was shipping cutting edge technology. But WOW!! Apple just sharpened the thin side of the blade by shipping the latest greatest technology direct from China to your door air overnight. Cutting the factory to customer time down 1 day!! Good on you Apple!!

Discussion is locked

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The way I see it...
Jun 5, 2007 12:23AM PDT

Shouldn't Apple be shipping their Apple TVs in bulk into a warehouse somewhere in the US first?

Normally, "smart tech companies" wouldn't ship one unit via Fedex everytime someone goes down to Apple.com and buy a unit...

Apple should have a warehouse somewhere, probably the West Coast of the States, where all the freight shipments should land to.

From there, the Logistics people should sort the units out and bring it to the various places. From the Retail outlets to the online purchase-makers. Of course, these will come in the form of many trucks and vans, not just one for all...

So, the "one day" could just be from [insert name of state here] to your doorstep, assuming you're from the US.

I could be wrong, but that's what I assume most companies would do to be logistically efficient.

-Ronald from Singapore

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Or Country of Purchase...
Jun 6, 2007 11:31PM PDT

I am actually in Canada and purchased the unit on apple.ca. But, the rest of your comments match my way of thinking.. The shipping route have been even more interesting. The shipping route to has been

SHENZHEN CN to ANCHORAGE, AK, USA
ANCHORAGE, AK to MEMPHIS, TN, USA < North American Hub >
MEMPHIS, TN to MISSISSAUGA, ON, Canada
MISSISSAUGA, ON to WINNIPEG, MB, Canada < My City >

This unit will have traveled more airline miles and visited more cities and countries than I have in my life before I receive it...

The cable I ordered with the Apple TV was shipped from someplace in the US via another courier!! If the rumor is true that Apple is only making $50.00 on each Apple TV. Then Apple is breaking even or loosing money selling Apple TV's with free shipping!!! (apple.ca had a promo of free shipping when I purchase the unit)...

I think somebody should let Apple know that the Dot Com Boom business model of loosing a dollar on each transaction does not work!!

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You are posting a reply to: Or Country of Purchase..[WRONG!]
Jun 15, 2009 8:54AM PDT

Actually, you are both wrong.

Shipping items in bulk to a distribution center and sending the out from there is a much more expensive way to do it!

Not only is customer service reduced, but inventory in the "pipeline cost" are what traditional cost accounting does not calculate correctly, and what are so daunting in this example.

Yes, logistics cost may go up slightly, sending them out overnight, but the reduction in other costs are not even a close comparison.

Kudos to Apple for using they're heads on this one!!

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a little confused about Robin hood's barn route
Apr 26, 2011 6:40AM PDT

my ipad is on route: <span id="INSERTION_MARKER"> delivered to Alaska and then routed to China where it has been passed around so far to different Chinese cities. Now isn't Alaska closer to the US mainland than China is? (I know my geography is really bad.) I thought the product was made in China (maybe not?) so why send it to Alaska and send it back to China. It may be cheaper but I still don't understand it? Just send it to California, lets say, and ship it by us postal service to my city. How long and how much more can that really cost? Or just send it out from Alaska. Makes more logical sense to me, but then I'm not a business person.) This route is going to take 5 days to ship and deliver.

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New Technology
Jul 6, 2010 2:20PM PDT

Well, yes it MAY make sense to do this, but you mentioned it was new tech and the Apple TVs are quite popular. I needed a case for my iPhone 4, and cases were backordered for 3 weeks, so I would imagine that especially in cases where something was JUST made available at the factory, it would make more sense to ship it directly from the factory, rather than to a warehouse state-side.

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IPhone 3GS
Jun 25, 2009 2:33AM PDT

I know this is an old topic.... However, I wish I had done my research first before purchasing this phone and my previous 1st generation IPhone that Apple outsource their products.

I am a true American who believes that this is one of the reason we a re in deficit....

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Re: iPhone 3GS
Jul 6, 2009 9:00PM PDT

Isn't it ironic that Americans don't want to see American companies do well...just as long as Americans have a job? That's actually the real problem with the American economy right now. It's not that American companies are outsourcing jobs overseas but that the American people are too greedy for their own good. By the way, I'm a born and bred American.

Let's say you own a company called "Company A". You have 100 employees working for you and you make "Product X". And the most you can sell "Product X" for is $200. As I'm sure you know, as the price of Product X goes up, the number of customers which will buy Product X goes down. So let's say you build Product X in America. Because of the unions your 100 employees have joined, it costs you $30 in parts and $20 in labor just to make 1 product. So each part costs you $50 to make. So you're making $150 profit before you include any of the overhead costs like benefits, vacation time, sick time, overtime, redesign costs, marketing costs, etc. At the end of all that, you still might break even with each product. Now, let's say that you build Product X in China where you can get both materials and labor much cheaper. Now it only costs $10 in parts and $7 in labor per product. So now you're making $183 profit per product you sell. You can pass this savings onto your customers, sell more products, and generate a higher revenue than if you were to build your product in America. Since you're building it in China, your expenses are lower too which means you're making a much higher profit.

The reason why China is such an economic powerhouse now is because they have no labor unions. Companies are shipping jobs overseas because labor is much cheaper. What Americans need to do, if they want the country to remain an economic powerhouse, is go back to school and learn a skill other than manual labor. Consider jobs in engineering, marketing, research and development, finance, etc. Those are the jobs that are in demand in this country - not putting iPhones together or talking on the phone and telling people how to fix their computer. In a free-market, the driving force in the economy is competition and all Americans - especially those who seek employment - need to be more competitive. In a free-market, greed is always good but never forget that companies are just as greedy as you - and there's always someone who will work for less money than you.

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Too greedy?
Jul 6, 2009 10:34PM PDT

While your explanation of why it's cheaper to manufacturer in China might hold water, the "too greedy" comment is over the top. I haven't met anyone anywhere (outside the U.S.) who says "hey, let me pay the higher price for that item so I won't be too greedy." Consumers everywhere want to buy at the lowest price.

At some point, however, there won't be "cheap labor" in sufficient quantities to keep this model going. Remember when most everything was "Made in Japan"? As countries become more industrialized, and governments forced to be less dictatorial, wages will go up. And hence, so will the costs of manufacturing where human hands are needed. There are only so many countries in the world left who can be counted upon for cheap labor. Maybe at that point, manufacturing --to the extent that manual dexterity is required-- will return to the countries where the demand for particular products exist.

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Re: Too greedy?
Jul 6, 2009 11:51PM PDT

That "too greedy" comment wasn't directed to consumers - it was directed towards workers. For example, the demand for a minimum wage. Unions (everywhere - not just in the U.S.) threaten to go on strike if they don't get their way (higher salaries, greater benefits, etc.) and more and more companies are just responding with "Ok, fine - we'll just get our workers from somewhere else." The reason they respond this way is because, like you said, consumers want the best possible product at the lowest possible price.

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Not a big fan of unions
Jul 7, 2009 4:00AM PDT

I don't have a problem with union members getting a decent wage, but the excesses of contracts --such as the "Jobs Bank" that helped cripple GM, and lifetime health care for retirees-- really need to be held in check. On the other hand, we can't have sweatshops in this country. But we do turn a blind eye to such shops overseas, so we can keep enjoying the WalMart pricing.

I do think that employee-owned companies (or ones that have profit-sharing in place) have a much better chance and much better incentive to keep productivity high and slackers out.

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Re: Not a big fan of unions
Jul 7, 2009 7:07AM PDT

I'll agree with what you said about smaller companies. Italy is a perfect example of "When unions go wrong". Nothing ever gets done over there (I lived there for 3 years) because according to their union's rules, after an employee works for a company for a year, he can't be fired. I had a guy work for my company while I was over there who was a terrible employee so I told him he was fired. I gave a severance package and worked everything out. The next day he came in and said "I didn't feel like retiring yet." After I told him that he wasn't going to get a paycheck anymore because he'd been laid off, he took the company to court and won. I just pray that the U.S. unions don't turn into that.

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problem
Mar 29, 2010 10:46AM PDT

The only problem in your assertion that it is okay to outsource all this carp to China is that as a part of my job I've spent many an hour hardening computer equipment to safeguard the information of Americans from attacks originating in CHINA. You see, China is not a Japan, or Taiwan, nor Phillipines, nor Inida. CHINA is our FOE. The sooner people get that through their heads the better of we're going to be. We would've never seen so many "Made in the USSR" labels during the cold war.

So the bottom line is that it's not a matter of Americans needing to get engineering degrees, or outsourcing jobs so much as it's a matter of us giving money to a country in exchange for carp that ends up in a landfill, then having the same country turn around and

a) attack our property (computer systems)
b) human rights violations
c) loan us back our own money to purchase more carp that'll end up in a landfill in a couple years.

It's a big game, and it's about time americans woke up to this. I'd happily pay more to buy the same products Made in Japan, Taiwan, India, [Insert US-Friendly Country Here], etc.

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You give unions too much credit
Jul 8, 2009 6:43AM PDT

Check out http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm Here's how it starts: "In 2008, union members accounted for 12.4 percent of employed wage and salary workers..."

You seem to be putting near 100% of the blame on 12% of the workforce! If your greed hypothesis is valid (and I think there's a lot of truth in it), you need to spread it all over not just demonize a minority.

Don't get me wrong--this report has some real interesting twists, like the much higher percentage in public arena--and the GM story should stand as a HUGE warning--but there are many other factors. How about how much health care costs added to GM's burden?

And, to get back on the soap box for another minute, there are lots of work conditions and rules that many take totally for granted that the unions got for us with their blood and sacrifice. Their current usefullness and all is a legit debate--but a blanket condemnation is way wrong.

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Actually
Jul 7, 2009 1:04AM PDT

Outsourcing is only enabled by modern communiucation technology and cheap modern transportation technology.
This trend may well reverse soon when oil supply is in depletion, which will increase the cost of transportation.

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Manufacturing in the future
Jul 7, 2009 1:07AM PDT

Might well in say Arizona, New Mexico or Nevada, in far more automated robotic factories powered by solar energy.

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Unions, SI! Off-shoring, out-sourcing, NO!
Sep 27, 2012 10:21PM PDT

I realize this is an old thread, but it rankles me to see remarks such as "Americans are too greedy for their own good" and combine that with an attack on unions.

If it weren't unions, working conditions would be dismal, wages would be miserable, and there never would have been a 1940s, post-World War II dramatic rise in living standards.

Don't begrudge good pensions and lifetime health care. We should *all* have that. Read some of the nonpartisan analyses and you'll see that wasn't the problem with the U.S. auto industry (or other non-competitive industries) at all. This is a red herring--and would simply lead to a race to the bottom.

A recent NY Times article revealed that Apple's sourcing its manufacturing in China was partly related to just-in-time inventory production--bedf-time worker dormitories to put on extra shifts as needed--in a way that could not be done here.

In any event, wouldn't you rather pay a bit more but have those computers and iPads manufactured here in the U.S.? Bringing good jobs, higher wages, more disposable income, multiplier effects, stimulating the U.S. economy!

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Frankly
Jul 6, 2009 9:43PM PDT

China is a poorer country and they need the jobs more than Americans do.
While American entrepreneurs can figure out new things to do with the freed labor. It is inevitable that over time manufacturing will require less labor anyway. It happened in the 18th and 19th century with the steam engine and industrialisation. It's happening now with outsourcing, which is only enabled by modern cheap transportation technology, and robotics.

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A little prepective.
Jul 22, 2009 1:38AM PDT

Lets look at some fact.

When America started its industrial boom we were the place labor was out sourced to we, also had cheap raw materials.

Yes the "GM style union" contracts do some damage to the American economy, but then again the natural outcome for make bad business decisions is going out of business, making room for a new enterprise to rise up in it place. They shouldn't be bailed out, it not even good for the worker int the long term, who did help make a successful company.

A just as big problem, if not bigger, is the money fountain effect in most large companies. The upper management, Ceo and board level personnel commonly make 100 to 1000 times or more than the average production worker. Often a Ceo of one company is on the board of a few other, perhaps offer consultation services to some more. So for High pay, crappy Part time leadership these people skim off as much if not more that union workers.

A few short out notes. Buy American is a just cleaver advertising for companies that were founded in America. No public company belongs to one country, it the ways stock works. We use trucks as a preferred method of shipping. Long term trucking is neither, cost effect or ecologically sustainable for a country. We expect cheap goods, but two digit stock returns, and upper level bonuses despite performance, this just leads to a "scraping the structure to build the facade" business model. China is a new era resource magnet. They get some a percentage of their resource from the "trash" countries, like the USA, are to lazy and proud to recycle themselves.

The upshot of all this, is we lose jobs over to out countries, because we are to lazy, greed and stupid to keep them at home.

(sorry aout the bad grammer)

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losin jobs
Mar 29, 2010 10:50AM PDT

It's one thing to lose jobs to Japan, Phillipines, etc. It's another thing to lose jobs to a nation that has hostile intent towards the states. The battlefield is on ALL fronts. Don't ever forget that. BTW - did you hear iPAD is shipping from the same place?

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not friendly.
Mar 29, 2010 10:48AM PDT

The problem is that China is not a US-Friendly country. Pick another one and manufacture there. It is in their grand plan to hang the West using the noose that we ourselves build.

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Good point
Mar 29, 2010 11:33AM PDT

Look how they're recently treated that Australian Rio Tinto executive, put in jail for 10 years after Rio Tinto refused a merger with a state owned Chinese company....

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Apple Shipping
Mar 29, 2010 11:58PM PDT

Why does it matter where it ships from as long as you receive the product in a timely manner??

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That kind of thinking
Mar 30, 2010 12:52PM PDT

Apathetic, ignorant consumers. Is responsible for a lot of the worlds problems.

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Problems?
Mar 30, 2010 10:52PM PDT

I certainly see that you have your share of problems by your reply...!!!