“Apple Inc. is hiring hundreds of new engineers and supply-chain managers in China and Taiwan as it attempts to speed up product development and launch a wider range of devices,” Eva Dou reports for The Wall Street Journal. “People familiar with the matter said the Cupertino, Calif., company is hiring engineers from rival smartphone maker HTC Corp. and other Taiwanese tech firms to build up teams in Shanghai and Taipei.”
“The hiring push reflects Apple’s need for more engineers to work with Asian suppliers on developing components for coming iPhones and iPads as it plans for faster and more frequent product launches,” Dou reports. “Apple is also ramping up its number of supply-chain managers in the wake of criticism over factory conditions at some of its suppliers.”
“Apple has added several hundred new engineers and operations staff in China over the past two years, with a blitz of hiring that began in mid-2013, people familiar with the matter said. The total number of engineers and operations staff in China now exceeds 600, they said,” Dou reports. “‘Apple is building an engineering team in Taipei to drive new iPhone product development,’ Apple said in one recruiting email obtained by The Wall Street Journal.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Brawndo Drinker” and “Jax44” for the heads up.]
This is a good move. A phone update per year isn’t going to keep Apple ahead, or at least equal, to the competition. The majority of people buy features, and in that arena Apple is getting hit the hardest.
Priority #1: Buy bigger iPhone batteries.
This company is becoming less and less like the company Steve Jobs built and more like your typical Wall Street company that wants to pump out new products every month to keep shareholders happy. I am not liking the direction Apple is moving in. What a disgrace to Job’s legacy.
RIP Apple.
There have been rumblings of discontent even within the company itself that Apple is turning into a discount shop manufacturing center instead of a center for innovation under the supply chain genius Cook.
The “rumblings” that we hear are from anonymous contrarians like you who often post under several different names. Sometimes I think that you argue with yourself on this forum.
Unless you work for Apple, you need to provide some evidence of such strife within the company. Otherwise, you are just posting FUD.
No. Many countries (China included) will enable foreign companies to sell in their country only if the products are built there. The engineers and supply chain expertise Apple is sending is to get parts in, ensure the production line is supported, and ensure that the quality that is Apple is maintained. Many companies have sent reps to China to get production started, then they leave and quality suffers. Apple will maintain a work force there so that their products continue to be among the worlds’ best.
Apple had better look out for engineer “moles” within their new hires. I would not put it past Samsung and other companies to “sponsor” an engineer into a new Apple job.
Tech companies need to be flexible and willing to change in order to achieve longevity. Get set in your ways too long and you can end up like Microsoft. Jobs may have been a genius visionary, but he also made several choices that pissed off a lot of people. He was far from perfect, and Cook seems like he’s improving and refining Jobs’ approach.
Maybe some of the Taiwanese can code a fix for the email application, broken for four months. ‘Designed in Taiwan for California’
So long, “Designed in California”
Those engineers aren’t going to design anything. They’re there to help the Chinese ramp up production while maintaining quality.
News flash :
Amid declining revenues, Trevor Phillips Industries has taken to trolling Apple news sites. “We feel we can pull in $6.00-8.00 a week, boosting our margins by 63%”.
TPI is known for producing the SSI module ( Samsung Sphincter Insertion ) back in 2010, but has done nothing since.
Trevor Phillips Industries is a criminal organisation in the video game Grand Theft Auto 5.
Ah. Didn’t know that, my ignorance is bliss.
“Apple is also ramping up its number of supply-chain managers in the wake of criticism over factory conditions at some of its suppliers.”
WRONG
Sheer speculation. I’ll believe it when Tim says it.
Might as well do something with all that overseas money that isn’t coming back to the U.S. 😉