[Leica] Leica and Apple

[mak at teleport.com (Mark Kronquist)]

Apple had factories in Freemont CA, Ireland and Singapore
On Aug 20, 2011, at 10:24 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote:

> The Mac SE's which came right after the 128 were made of all places in
> Ireland. The one I have now a MacBook Pro was drop shipped here straight
> from China.
> -- 
> Mark R.
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
> 
> 
> 
>> From: Rei Shinozuka <shino at panix.com>
>> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
>> Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:39:35 -0400
>> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica and Apple
>> 
>> 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
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
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