Gadgetory

thanks for watching tech quickie click the subscribe button then enable notifications with the Bell icon so you won't miss any future videos wherever you are in the world you won't have to look hard for somebody using an iPhone so you might think then that because the iPhone is just about everywhere Apple has facilities turning out iPhones all over the world but the truth is that most of them are assembled in just one country China and this isn't just true for Apple gadgets I can virtually guarantee that if you take a closer look at any of the mass-produced gizmos in your home you'll find at least some parts of it that were made or assembled in China but why is China such a powerhouse for electronics manufacturing many people assume that it's because China has a huge and inexpensive labor force and there's definitely some truth to this not only as China the world's most populated country but it has lower minimum wages than much of the Western world in Shenzhen one of the world's largest high-tech manufacturing hubs the minimum wage is less than three US dollars per hour but a large pool of cheap labor is far from the only reason that China is attractive to tech companies back in the 1970s the Chinese government became interested in moving away from strict central planning and toward opening up its economy to outside investment one part of this was designating the aforementioned Shenzhen as a special economic zone which encouraged foreign private businesses to set up shop in the area through tax breaks and relative freedom from Beijing's regulations China was especially interested in having these companies manufacture exports this strategy ended up proving very attractive for foreign firms and today Shenzhen is one of the world's busiest ports as many of the companies who put down roots there ended up building massive factories that can very quickly scale production if there's a huge contract to be fulfilled like right before a new iPhone would hit the market and remember that in addition to factories and laborers to work the assembly you also need engineers to oversee them and China has a massive number of Engineers that can provide middle management way more than countries like the u.s. furthermore because of the sheer scope of these facilities China can offer supply chain advantages lots of these factories focus on custom fabrication so everything from plastic injection for keyboards to making sure that a screw is the right shape and the right size this means that because they don't have to wait around for a part to arrive from the other side of the world China's manufacturers can respond quickly to customer demands or eleventh-hour design changes to top it all off many Chinese manufacturers aren't focusing just on the export market anymore folks who live in China are spending more on consumer goods than they ever have before including electronics and with 1.4 billion potential customers right in their backyard many of these companies are trying to expand their capacity even more to tap into the wallets of Chinese citizens of course this model is largely built on maximum efficiency which has led to a lot of controversy over the years about things like environmental standards and pollution wages company policies regarding attendance and interactions with co-workers forced relocation to often cramped on-campus living quarters a need to be available at a moment's notice and even accusations of forced labor and these have led many observers to call out companies who they perceive to be using something akin to sweatshop labor but the fact that demand is so high for electronics makes this a problem with no immediately obvious answers especially since consumers seem to be finding it very difficult to vote with their wallets so to speak many things that might have been considered frivolous gadgets 10 years ago like smartphones are quickly becoming necessities of modern life and last time I checked none of those are made in the USA by middle-class workers making Union wages so sound off in the comments with your opinions and let us know your ideas and also let us know if you'd like to see more videos like this one about the forces that drive the technology industry speaking of forces that drive Squarespace is a force that's driving a more beautiful internet for everyone with Squarespace you can build a simple powerful beautiful website with just about no knowledge of how to build a website at all you just pick one of their gorgeous templates and start putting in your own text and images and they've got 24/7 support via live chat and email if you're running into trouble Squarespace starts at just twelve dollars a month and you get a free domain if you by Squarespace for the year and every one of their templates features responsive design so your website scales to look great on any device commerce so every website comes to the free online store and integration with Google search console to help you improve 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