>It's just that the Japanese specialised in high quality manufacturing, and the market went to China's low-wage manufacturing instead.
Apple iPhones are largely assembled in China, and nobody would claim they are low quality. Chinese manufacturing isn't low quality, unless that's what you want to pay for.
Furthermore, I claim that in the last 10-15 years, the quality of Japanese electronics actually declined.
The quality in the iPhone comes from great design and choice of materials. There is nothing particularly good (or bad) about the quality of its manufacturing. You'll also notice that non of the actually important components like the CPU or the screen come from Chines companies (yet)
Not sure this is true. I'm no manufacturing expert, but I've heard a million stories about how intensely involved Apple is in their manufacturers' processes. c.f. how the glass is fitted on iPhone 5s: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/09/12/how-the-iphone-5-is-...
>The quality in the iPhone comes from great design and choice of materials.
Right, but it's assembled in China. My point is that if you care about quality, you can get quality manufacturing in China. Similarly, if you want cheap, you can get cheap.
Comments
>It's just that the Japanese specialised in high quality manufacturing, and the market went to China's low-wage manufacturing instead.
Apple iPhones are largely assembled in China, and nobody would claim they are low quality. Chinese manufacturing isn't low quality, unless that's what you want to pay for.
Furthermore, I claim that in the last 10-15 years, the quality of Japanese electronics actually declined.
The quality in the iPhone comes from great design and choice of materials. There is nothing particularly good (or bad) about the quality of its manufacturing. You'll also notice that non of the actually important components like the CPU or the screen come from Chines companies (yet)
Not sure this is true. I'm no manufacturing expert, but I've heard a million stories about how intensely involved Apple is in their manufacturers' processes. c.f. how the glass is fitted on iPhone 5s: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/09/12/how-the-iphone-5-is-...
>The quality in the iPhone comes from great design and choice of materials.
Right, but it's assembled in China. My point is that if you care about quality, you can get quality manufacturing in China. Similarly, if you want cheap, you can get cheap.
I don't think you read that carefully enough. I didn't say China was low quality, I said it was "low-wage manufacturing". Which it is.
But the quality would be better if robots did the work instead of by low-wage peasants working overlong hours.