[Leica] Leica and Apple

[shino at panix.com (Rei Shinozuka)]

I should add that the Midland Ontario ELCAN wasn't just some low-cost 
manufacturing plant.  Walter Mandler designed some of my favorite lenses 
where, including the last non-aspheric versions of the 35 'lux and 90 
'cron, as well as the classic 75 'lux and of course the Noctilux 1.0.

-rei


On 08/20/2011 10:39 PM, Rei Shinozuka wrote:
> Minor quibble--the first Mac was 128K.  We got ours with Imagewriter 
> from Columbia as part of the Apple University initiative.
>
> My other point, which you alluded to, was that Leica did in fact 
> outsource design and production to Portugal and Canada and made 
> partnerships in the Far East in the 60s and 70s.  For a variety of 
> reasons they have to date reversed most if not all of these 
> initiatives.  I'm not as familiar with all of the history as others on 
> the list--perhaps they can explain Leica's outsource and insource 
> history.
>
> -rei
>
>
> On 08/20/2011 08:02 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>> When Apple introduced the Mac 512 in 1984 it stressed the fact that its
>> production line was almost fully automatic. Many manufacturing companies
>> assume a labor component in the finished product of 50 to 85%. Apple 
>> boasted
>> a manufacturing labor component of about 1%. At the time I was chair 
>> of the
>> Computer Committee of the City Univ. of New York. I, and several 
>> colleagues,
>> were treated to a tour of the Cupertino, CA facility with plenty of 
>> wine and
>> gourmet meals thrown in. NYC was in IBMs back yard and Apple wanted 
>> to gain
>> a foothold. When we visited the plant there were very few employees 
>> actually
>> building Macs. Most of the manufacturing workers were in the assembly 
>> and
>> test departments and in shipping. There were plenty of software 
>> engineers,
>> programmers and paper jockeys.
>>
>> Apple tried, and mostly succeeded, in getting a profit margin of 30% on
>> manufacturing when most of the competition worked hard to get a 15% 
>> margin.
>> That explains, in part, why Apple, started 30 years ago by two guys in a
>> Palo Alto garage, is now the most valuable company in the world with 
>> assets
>> exceeding those of Exxon. It also has 76 billion USD in the 
>> bank.Apple has
>> continued its philosophy of keeping manufacturing labor costs low by now
>> assembling most of its hardware in China and Taiwan. Both countries have
>> labor rates a fraction of those in the USA and Europe.
>>
>> Now if Leica kept its design facility in Germany but manufactured its
>> cameras and lenses in Asia it would be far more price competitive in the
>> world camera market. Quality need not suffer. My Rollei 35SE made in
>> Singapore is the equal of another Rollei 35 made in Germany. My 
>> Olympus DSLR
>> 500 made in China works just fine.
>>
>> Leica is no stranger to offshore manufacturing. The Leica CL, made by
>> Minolta in Japan, is a superb camera and its 40 mm Summicron, also 
>> made in
>> Japan, is one of the Leica's best normal lenses. Leica itself has 
>> partnered
>> with Fuji and Panasonic. It has made some of its best cameras and 
>> lenses in
>> Portugal and Canada. If it adopted the Apple model, Leica's sales would
>> increase, its profits would soar, and Herr Kaufman would be ecstatic. Te
>> only unhappy people would be some members of the LUG. You know who 
>> you are.
>>
>> Larry Z
>>
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>
>
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