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Posts: 379

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Q: Do the ethical implications of buying an iphone put anyone off?

Do the terrible conditions in the Chinese factories deter people from buying apple products.

 

Everyone and his dog seems to have one here and it appears they couldn't care less about the well publicisied abuse.

10 years 28 weeks ago in  Web & Technology - China

 
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Comments (25)
Posts: 9631

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For me it's more a matter of the fact that iOS really bugs the balls off me. I am sure you can get an Android phone assembled by people working under appalling conditions too. 

The fact that iPhones are pretty cheaply made but sold at a high price is also not appealing to me.

Nessquick:

exactly, and small display, non-different desing. the boring uniformity of iShat does not impress me. new iP 5C looks so childish, but my colleague ( non-asian ) is sooo excited about it. I say, it is still only iPhone ... 

10 years 28 weeks ago
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xinyuren:

New iPhone on contract:  $199     Galaxy S4 on contract: $199  (AT&T, as of August 15th)

Most people buy phones on contract.  There goes that argument.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Scandinavian:

not if you like can match the price of the contracts against your typical usage and find that most have either too much or too little of something for your need and you will end up paying a lot more with the contract than without. I don't call people, people call me. 

10 years 28 weeks ago
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IrvineWelsh:

Who the hell has a contract these days. One of the biggest cons going. Tied in for 2 years and ripped off blind for the privilege of having a new phone. You're having a giraffe... 

10 years 28 weeks ago
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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
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I'm prepared to be downvoted, but...

 

People who buy iPhones / most Apple products aren't very intelligent people. Apple is popular because it's made for the lowest common denominator: the insufferable idiot.
 

Apple products are for people who have trouble turning on their PC, and don't know what a web browser is. Those who have converted to the Apple side from the "real" side are people who have given up on life and wish to live a life of idiocy.

davidccollis:

I agree with you Hulk, but would like to add that this also probably applies to the those who love the windows 8 interface. Microsoft also jumped on the bandwagon with the backwards idea that they need to merge touch screen and app tech with a PC/Laptop operating system. I knew a chap where I worked in the UK who was so excited about the the portable windows 8 on those mini laptops coming out. It was only because he has completely illiterate and couldn't type or work a computer for shit which was why he was so chuffed.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Hulk:

Windows 8 is such a horrific abomination of computation desolation. I've uninstalled it on all of my newer laptops and just installed Windows 7. I'm not touching anything except 7 at this point.

 

Too bad they all have NSA backdoors. Oh well.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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xinyuren:

Definitely downvoted you.  I totally disagree with that snobbish point of view.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Nessquick:

xin: the problem with apple users is, that they are too snobbish :-)

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Hulk:

But xinyuren, I thought you were a fellow wumao?!  Didn't the CCP issue a directive that you must agree with everything I say? cool

 

Nah, that's just my bitter hatred against Apple showing. If people want to use Apple products, that's fine. I'm just so rabidly pro-PC, pro-Linux (and I hate it) and pro-Android. But there's also the fact that it's a walled-garden, much like China. Apple gets to decide what you have, and what you can't have. Kinda like the CCP.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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xinyuren:

Hunk, don't you know?  All wumaos love their iPhones!   Are you a real wumao??   Apple gets to decide what we have?  Please explain that comment.  It is companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google who have pushed the development of new features and more powerful phones.  These companies have made the smartphone the most influential communication device it is today.  Why are you so angry at a product that you don't even want.  Usually people reserve such strong emotions for things they desire.  Anyways, it's a free market.  Apple gets what it gets for it's products because they satisfy an enormous chunk of the market.  That's a sign of a good product.  What I admire about Apple is they combine savvy business sense with a true love for their products.  Love them or hate them,  their products are a work of art.  As a designer, I can appreciate that aspect.  That being said, I think they will go downhill without Steve Jobs.  Apple was his heart, soul and genius.  The end has already begun with those new candy colored iPhone 5's they just released.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Hulk:

Crap. I haven't received my iPhone directive yet... sorry. I won't disagree that Apple products are a work of art. They definitely have their uses. I think. But yes, I appreciate the competition. I dislike their predatory business practices, etc. Sorry can't type too well on the phone. Apple decides that you can't have flash. Apple decides what apps you can have, and what you can't have. They want to control almost every aspect of the device. Also, they tried to sue jailbreakers, tried to make it illegal to root the device. with android phones, I can sideload whatever I want. I can install and do whatever I want. Carrier locks don't count because I don't buy phones on contracts. With Apple, you have a closed ecosystem. I dislike that a lot. I'll expound later, a little busy and its hard to type.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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xinyuren:

I'm not a fan of a closed system either, but there are advantages to such a system (as Google well knows).  You can't satisfy 100% of the market.  Some people like tinker with and highly customize their phones.  These geeks will probably not appreciate an iPhone.  Other people (most people) just want their phone to work and look beautiful.  When the iPhone was first released, it satisfied this portion of the market.  Other companies scrambled to catch up.  I am a professed geek, but nowadays, I just want my phone to work reliably and smoothly.  But I also love beauty.  That's why I chose the most beautiful phone with the most elegant UI on the market..... the Nokia N9  :-)

10 years 28 weeks ago
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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
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 Aren't all phones made in Asian countries, not only China? I don't use a phone for many things, I use map, translator, text and phone. I've had a few iPhones. 

 I really do feel for the Chinese being poor, but I also see them not as stressed as North Americans. Money doesn't buy happiness. My GF is dirt poor in my opinion, yet she says she is happy. My great grandparents homesteaded in western Canada, they and my grandparents were poor, but they had a good simple happy life. hard though.

 China is a developing country. I think it will follow in our development. The pay is low and the conditions are terrible, but that is why the factories are there. I saw a TV program on factory life in China before ever coming to China, people working long hours and actually living in factories. The show showed that people slept at their work stations during breaks. I now see that Chinese sleep more than we do any way.

 Things were tougher once, they still aren't great at home. Over time regulations have been rolled back in Ontario. Look at how much trouble early unions had in America and the terrible factory working conditions early on. Violence was used against union members. I though Ford police hanged some members in the early years, but I can't find any links. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Hunger_March

Scandinavian:

nope, Motorola (aka Google) makes their stuff in the US of A, the promised land. http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/11/4717796/made-in-america-a-look-inside-motorolas-moto-x-factory

 

(Flextronics of course having several plants in China)

10 years 28 weeks ago
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IrvineWelsh:

I think you have a fair point.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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TedDBayer:

iPhones have a good feel to hold also solid. Many phones that I have looked at feel flimsy. You can tell a real iPhone from a fake just by picking it up.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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TedDBayer:

 I was thinking about the labour movement in North America, if you heard this coming from another country you might think it was terrible. Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers on a strike to get the right to strike. Postal workers and Air Traffic were singled out in Canada after wage and price freezes in Canada. Postal workers are forced to strike or locked out and then legislated back to work with legislation that rolls back benefits and gives less of a raise than was offered before the strike.

 We have this notion that we are so free, but we are so over regulated and controlled. We have free speech, but is anyone really listening?

10 years 27 weeks ago
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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
Posts: 544

Shifu

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I'm prepared to be downvoted, but...

 

People who buy products that I am not a fan of aren't very intelligent people. The company that I don't like is popular because it's made for the lowest common denominator: the insufferable idiot.
 

Products that I am not a fan of are for people who have trouble turning on their products that I am a fan of, and don't know what a web browser is. Those who have converted to the side I'm not a fan of from the "real" side are people who have given up on life and wish to live a life of idiocy.

 

In short, my tastes make me better than you, and your preferences make you stupid and lame.

Hulk:

I'm not a fan of a lot of things... I'm not a fan of Linux, but it's open and free. People who use Linux generally aren't idiots.

 

But Apple really is made for idiots.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Mateusz:

Well, fanboys always have the most rational response, and factual reasons. 

 

I mean, "People who like the thing I don't like are idiots" is totally logical.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
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For the record, I'm a fanboy.  I'm a fanboy of technology.  I would never say any specific form of  high technology is for idiots.  An idiot, by definition, cannot operate high tech equipment.  Most electronics that we buy are produced under less than ideal conditions by low paid production workers.  Apple is not the only culprit of this practice.  So maybe you should lay off of all electronic including LED lights, cheap clothing, and so many other things.  The ethical quandary is in your head.  Until people are forced by firearms to work under such conditions, I don't see your argument.  I don't own a iPhone, but I admit it is a quality phone.  It gets the job done smoothly and stylishly.  It's development was a breakthrough in the market for upscale, stylish phones.  I don't hate on Apple for taking advantage of their market leadership.  I love my Nokia N9 and Samsung tablets but if the iPhone wasn't such a stupid status symbol here, perhaps I would have one myself.

CARLGODWIN1983:

Yes, don't follow the sheep here.  Amen

10 years 28 weeks ago
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IrvineWelsh:

Apple isn't the only culprit but they are one that has been caught out many times and change an especially high mark-up for their products.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Hulk:

I agree with you. I just really hate Apple in particular for their patent trolling and other bad practices.

 

Yeah, they really did help push technology forward... or did they? Using existing technology that others used, and then claiming they did something unique. Patent trolling everyone who produces something even remotely similar is evil. Android existed before the iPhone, and a prototype was already in the works.

 

Samsung had a picture frame which the iPad pretty much copied for it's design, and then apple turned around and sued them for copying their design with the Galaxy Tab. Yeah, right... they already had that design years before the iPhone came out, with their picture frames. etc. holding baby, cant type

 

Regardless, competition definitely helped to produce my Galaxy Note and S3.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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xinyuren:

They stood on the shoulders of others in the same way all other great companies do.  Even if they didn't create a single aspect of their phones, they have succeeded in pushing tech forward.  They have combined them in ways that others haven't before.  They have packaged them in ways that has made them irresistible to their users.  By acquiring key technologies, they have assembled devices that all others measured themselves against.  The iPhone is a market leader for a reason.  Lawsuits don't sell phones.  Good design does.  All corporations guard their bottom line and most of them use devious practices to do so, so there is plenty of hate to spread around if that is your gripe.  That is the nature of the hi-tech industry.  

10 years 28 weeks ago
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Hulk:

New directive issued. I don't disagree, actually. Patent trolling really gets me heated.

10 years 28 weeks ago
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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
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Yes, I have (I) Nokia, for 199 $HK.

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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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If you are worried about the ethical implications of an iphone, then you should probably worry about the majority of the things you own, from the whatever computer you are using to the fingernail clippers that keep you comfortably typing.

IrvineWelsh:

Some things you have to take a stand on...

10 years 28 weeks ago
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bike-gypsy:

iphones are a moot point in this. they only are exposed for shoddy conditions of the factory because they are such a widely known and well selling brand

10 years 28 weeks ago
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10 years 28 weeks ago
 
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