“Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. led Apple Inc. suppliers higher in Taipei trading after the Cupertino, California-based maker of the iPhone and iPad reported record earnings last week,” Weiyi Lim reports for Bloomberg.
“Hon Hai, an Apple product assembler, climbed by the 7 percent daily limit to NT$93.80 as of the close, the biggest advance since May 2009,” Lim reports. “Catcher Technology Co., a maker of iPhone cases, rose 6.9 percent to NT$179, the highest close since Oct. 28. Largan Precision Co., a lens maker, jumped 6.6 percent to NT$628, the highest since Nov. 9.”
Lim reports, “‘Hon Hai could benefit’ from Apple’s results, Arthur Hsieh, an analyst at UBS AG, wrote in a Jan. 27 report covering the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics. ‘The growth momentum is much more significant than we expected previously.’ UBS raised its recommendation on Hon Hai stock to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Apple lifts all boats!
Who can deny Apple’s competitors are also benefiting from Apple’s skyrocketing success. What awaits the world of consumers is Apple’s mindset applied to other industries, like the thermostat.
One topical area of interest will be in manufacturing. I can see a return to the early days of America’s industrial revolution where workers lived and worked and their children were schooled on the manufacturing premises in dorm-like buildings if single, and subsidized housing if married.
Perhaps Apple can kick-start a manufacturing revolution, starting in California, putting tens-of-thousands to work. If Apple were to subsidize cost-of-living expenses (allowances) then wages could be dramatically reduced.
For a billion-dollars to start, Apple could buy up residential properties of modestly-built housing, or blow-in-place and rebuild housing for its employees. Campus living for singles is certainly doable.
Let’s kick it around and see what we could come up with… assuming Apple was going to bring manufacturing back to the US of A, what would it take to make the move more palatable?
@G4Dualie: Do you really think that the U.S. wants to return to the “factory towns” that existed in the late 1800s and early 1900s? My grandfather and other relatives in WVa lived in those times, and the stories were not that favorable towards “the company.”
I admit that the efficiencies of such a system are undeniable, if people can be arranged and ordered like machines. But the quality of life is not necessarily that great. Could such a system be implemented with greater emphasis on quality of life? It certainly seems reasonable to believe so. But I would not be comfortable handing over that responsibility and authority to any company, even Apple.
The US has a very, very short memory.
Indeed…uh, what did you say?