Supplier troubles continue at Apple
Here are continuing stories of continued labor rights violations at Foxconn and other suppliers and sites in Apple’s supply chain (click here and here and here).
Do Apple’s troubles in maintainign an ethical supply chain make you less likely to buy Apple products?
I think that in a perfect world, people would be less likely to buy Apple products. However, because of the mass market reach Apple has, that is extremely unlikely. The switching costs to not buy from Apple anymore would be huge to the consumer and frankly, they just want the product, regardless of how its made. Apple’s power over the market is much more powerful than articles about their supply chain. If a problem is not affecting the consumer directly, I think many will ignore it and buy the iPhone anyway. I may be less likely to buy Apple products in the future, however I still have an iPhone and a Macbook currently.
This is a difficult concept to grasp. I agree in the sense that one should be less-willing to buy Apple products because of these ethical violations; for example, employing children under the age of sixteen and the counts of female discrimination should not be tolerated. However, it is also difficult to imagine a world that people will not be willing to purchase Apple products at the rapid rate we continue to do so. One could simply switch from an iPhone to any other smartphone, but it would not be a plausible scenario for the majority to follow suit because of the impact Apple has on the consumer electronics market as a whole. Despite the ethical violations, I will not be dissuaded to purchase other products.
While ideally, people would take Apple doing little to help the environment in their supply chain would reduce their sales and reach, however I doubt that would ever happen. Apple essentially has the market cornered, almost a monopoly in the cellphone industry, and is almost too big to fail. As society keeps trending towards a green world and taking into account that green companies often get more profits, Apple’s exploitation of not being green could catch up with them. Additionally, Apple’s labor violations will eventually catch up to them, as society is more conscious of these horrible acts of labor, however, I doubt there will be an effect big enough to challenge their monopoly within the cellular market.
I think that while we would all expect that people would stop buying the products if they know about Apple’s problems in maintaining an ethical supply chain; realistically, this is not the case. Apple’s products have become such an important factor in how this generation interacts and many people are becoming dependent on them. However, I do see a change in the customer’s perspective in the near future as the millennial generation increases. Millennials are characterized by being more of a conscious customer when it comes to green initiatives and other factors. So it would not be surprising if in the near future, we become more aware of this problem and create a bigger disruption for Apple. Meanwhile, Apple is still a monopoly in the electronic market and I dont see the company having too much motivation to change their labor practices.
This is a very difficult situation in my opinion. The reason for that is because this is the type of situation in which you would expect people to stop supporting and buying Apple products. Unfortunately, because of what Apple is, that is not going to happen. Apple would have to do something extreme for people to stop supporting them, extreme as in trying to take over the planet, and even then, people might still be hesitant. The reason for this is because of the dependency people have with their smartphones, especially this generation. People in their late teens and early 20’s are literally attached to their smartphones, and I believe at least 80% of those smartphones are iphones. I don’t mean to sound like a terrible person, but I know for a fact I am going to continue using my iPhone and my iPad, a few ethical issues is not going to change that, and I am sure most people are on the exact same page as I am.
Although this is troubling to see that Apple has problems with their supply chain it isn’t all that surprising. Companies take major risks when they outsource their production to other countries especially China. They are aware that many of these companies have problems with underage workers, over working employees, and alot of other violations. It is good to see that Apple is taking steps to reduce these problems. It looks like their numbers have decreased when it comes to underage workers in the past year which is nice to see. I don’t believe that this will make me stop buying Apple products at least for now. If this was to make me stop buying apple products than I would have to stop buying Nike products and other companies that outsourced production to China.
Apple’s approach at how they have been handling their supply chain shows that of a maturing firm. They have gone through their peak with the appeal for their products and have now moved onto to the mature stage, which forces them to cut production and labor costs in order to scale back. Because of the brand that Apple has built through the high demand for their products, they have been able to get away with low quality supply chain practices such as cheap labor. A normal company who goes this route might have the risk of its customers refusing to buy the product, but that isn’t the case with Apple. It is at least good to see that Apple is taking the steps to reduce these problems. It is important that they do, because they are slowly losing demand to companies such as Android. This would mean that consumers would take things such as green practices into account when determining whether or not to buy an Apple or Android.
I am less willing to buy Apple products knowing about the unethical practices they have used throughout their supply chain. When a major company like Apple has a sole bottom line of maximizing profits, shareholders are prioritized over the well-being of other stakeholders. While publicly-traded companies are legally obligated to operate in favor of their shareholders, more oversight into the ethics of their sourcing operations should be enacted. A company as financially successful as Apple should not be involved with underpaid foreign labor, who often work in unsafe conditions as well. I would be more willing to buy Apple products knowing that they are not undercutting any of their stakeholders in order to maximize profits.
I think that in an ideal world consumers should be less likely to purchase Apple products knowing of their unethical treatment of foreign workers, however this is obviously not the case since Apple is the most valuable company in the world. They have achieved this in part because of the hardware and software ecosystem they have created, and most peoples devices and information are all linked and connected to the Apple network. This makes it more difficult to leave the company, and so a different alternative solution should be pursued. Regulators should push for Apple to practice more sustainable labor operations, otherwise incur some sort of financial penalty.
These practices should effect Apple more than they currently do. I personally am not a huge Apple fan so I don’t buy their products. Apple has made it clear they won’t do anything substantial to improve working conditions until it actually hurts their bottom line. It seems every year there is a new article about the working conditions in the Foxconn factory and apple addresses it in a reactionary manner (people are committing suicide so Apple install nets, a year later an article comes out about how depressed the people are they mental health doctors). They are not addressing the real problems that cause the suicide and depression like the 14 hour work days.