The Nikkei Asian Review has an interesting piece looking back at the impact of a decade of iPhone production, examining how it made some companies rich, some considerably poorer – and even bankrupted one major supplier.
Foxconn is, it says, the obvious success story, but not the only one.
Over the next decade, the iPhone would help push Foxconn’s revenue from $38 billion to $145 billion and turn it into one of the world’s largest employers …
How the iPhone reshaped Asian tech described how iPhone lens supplier Largan Precision saw its revenue climb over 700%, becoming the most valuable stock in Taiwan. Screen glass supplier Lens Technology saw its stock more than double in value. A-series chip supplier TSMC saw its net profits triple. The revenue of speaker supplier AAC Technologies climbed by more than 600%.
But other companies have been hurt by the iPhone, it says.
Winning a large Apple contract can also be a risky business, with one huge Taiwanese supplier going out of business as a result.
As Imagination Tech and others have learned, a lot of business can disappear overnight if Apple switches tack.
Some suppliers are even concerned about the future of the smartphone business as a whole, with worldwide growth predicted to remain in the 3-4% range through to 2021, and perhaps that only for a limited time.
One interesting take-out is that Chinese suppliers have more than doubled under Tim Cook’s leadership. Though perhaps no surprise, given Cook’s reputation for efficient supply-chain management: the more suppliers you can concentrate in one place, the greater the efficiency and reliability of supply.
Check out the full piece for a lot more detail on the impact of Apple’s suppliers.
