Apple’s main iPhone assembler Foxconn is offering big bonuses to entice workers back to its Zhengzhou, China factory after the Chinese Communist Party’s quixotic “Zero COVID” lockdowns set off widespread unrest. Apple faces a significant shortfall of the most-wanted iPhone 14 Pro models for the crucial Christmas shopping season.
Foxconn said Tuesday that it will give a 500 Chinese yuan ($70) payment to returning workers, a 3,000 yuan bonus for those who stay more than 30 days and a 6,000 yuan January bonus. It comes a day after the company said it would pay wages of up to 13,000 yuan for some workers in December and January.
Analysts at Evercore ISI estimate the Zhengzhou factory accounts for more than 70% of Apple’s global iPhone production, highlighting the Cupertino-based giant’s reliance on China as a manufacturing hub, even as geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China rise and Beijing’s strict “zero-Covid” policy causes supply chain disruptions.
The Zhengzhou protests and walkout is likely to have a revenue impact on Apple, according to a note published by Evercore ISI on Monday.
Evercore ISI analysts said that iPhone demand could be affected by 5 million to 8 million units in the December quarter, mostly at the high-end of Apple’s smartphone range, and that could negatively impact revenue by $5 billion to $8 billion.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, “These iPhone 14 Pro sales are merely deferred, not lost. Some may shift down to iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, but most buyers will simply wait for supply to catch up amidst strong demand.”
As for the CCP’s “Zero COVID” idiocy, here’s how it’s going:
White suited Covid stormtroopers entering every area of protests in an attempt to crush dissidents. pic.twitter.com/ox1AzWCP1u
— Radio Australis (@freedom4UU) November 29, 2022
China protests – latest: 'Utterly extraordinary' scenes as protesters shout 'down with Xi Jinping' https://t.co/z0Fmhpr9Fw
— Nahid Alaei (@NahidAlaei) November 29, 2022
This is what triggered the protests in #China
Families in a Hi-Rise in Urumqi, Xinjiang, were locked into their apartments (because of a #Covid lockdown), as their building caught fire.
They were burned alive as they couldn't escape & no help arrived in time.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/taoTLzeiFc
— IncredibleIndian (@Incredi00611910) November 29, 2022
China Agrees to Relax Lockdown Restrictions Amid Protests Against Jinping’s Zero-COVID Policy https://t.co/N3gb0GcKDx
— Magxnews (@magxnews) November 29, 2022
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Biased US legacy corporate media establishment lapdog clowns:
the Chinese police look like little bunnies.
would be a nice touch to add a puffy little bunny tail to their bunny-white uniforms as they hop down the street.
Apple… uhmm… Foxconn wants to entice young people in China to go to factories to make iPhones after Apple crimped AirDrop functionality for angry young people in China. There are enough people in China to keep this game going, but it is going to cost Foxconn… uhmm… Apple. I wonder how many points Apple can earn from the CCP by taking Twitter off the air.