Apple in China Quotes

“Quite simply, you don’t get to do business in China today without doing exactly what the Chinese government wants you to do. Period. No one is immune. No one.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“Steve Jobs had once said of hiring people: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“If something was too easy, ID would push the envelope even further. In the making of the Mac Mini desktop around 2004, one engineer recalls Ive asking if he could make the computer such and such a size. The engineer said he could. Ive narrowed the dimensions and asked if he could build that. The engineer said he could. So Ive minimized the dimensions again. This time the engineer said, “No, no, that would be really difficult.” And Ive said, “Great, those are the dimensions.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“Besides Luxshare, the other three major indigenous contract manufactures making Apple products are BYD Electronic, a major supplier of hardware enclosures and assembler of iPads; Goertek, a maker of AirPods and AirPods Pro; and Wingtech, which manufacturers Mac Mini desktops and MacBooks. These groups collectively reported $6 billion of total revenue in 2015; by 2020 their revenues had quadrupled to $25 billion, and in 2025 their sales are expected to exceed $52 billion. Apple has been instrumental to their success, shifting orders from Taiwanese leaders Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron, and Quanta. As David Collins, an Asia-based manufacturing consultant, said of the Red Supply Chain in late 2020: “Foxconn’s share price is down roughly 50% from two years ago. They see blood in the water.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“iPhone accounts for less than a fifth of global smartphone shipments but garners 80 percent of industry profits.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“The technology transfer that Apple facilitated made it the biggest corporate supporter of Made in China 2025, Beijing’s ambitious, anti-Western plan to sever its reliance on foreign technology.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“The iPhone accounts for fewer than 20 percent of smartphones sold around the world, yet it routinely boasts more than 80 percent of industry profits.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“Only a dozen multinationals earn more than $10 billion a year in China, and Apple tops the list with around $70 billion.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“When Apple shifted production to China in the early 2000s, Washington believed that free trade would help develop a middle class and inculcate democracy in what was then the world’s most populous country. Instead, economic success empowered China’s rulers, reinforcing their once-tenuous hold on the country and enabling Beijing to weaponize its manufacturing might. As one former Apple engineer puts it: “We’ve trained a whole country, and now that country is using it against us.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“How Apple got out of this mess was a surprising twist, the stuff of novels. Donald Trump had ascended to the US presidency threatening Apple; instead, he saved it. In May 2019 the Trump administration alleged Huawei was a security threat, citing alleged ties with the Chinese government and the potential for its communications equipment to be used for espionage or cyberattacks. It soon imposed unprecedented sanctions, depriving Huawei of Google services, including the Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, and other Android tools—a crippling blow for Huawei phones distributed outside of China. Washington also disallowed American companies from shipping fifth-generation cellular chips to the group. Phones equipped with 5G had only just started taking off.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“Part of the tiled floor was left so bloodstained that Apple had to replace the stones.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“The license for a family-owned sewing machine repair shop became the legal basis Apple used to establish a multibillion-dollar retail presence”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“Fighting for excellence is about resisting the gravitational pull of mediocrity. It involves being dead tired and still pushing yourself, and others, to get it right, every time.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“The presentation was so good that some executives at BlackBerry maker Research in Motion thought it was faked somehow.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“A lot of people got sick at Apple,”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“during the funeral for one of these people, the number of Apple employees who left the Sunday service to join conference calls was unbelievable.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“Apple as an organization was a living, breathing manifestation of cognitive dissonance.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“For the original iPhone, Foxconn had even agreed to a no-quibble warranty, an onerous clause known internally as “a Tony Blevins special.” It compelled Foxconn to take full responsibility for any iPhone failures within the first twelve months after purchase. “The no-quibble warranty meant that if we get a return, we’re sending it back to you, and you fix it and deal with it,” this person says. The clause was an incentive for Foxconn to maintain high quality standards—no funny business like saving on costs by using unauthorized suppliers, the sort of trick contract manufacturers were infamous for.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“This cat-and-mouse pattern—of the media finding problems in the supply chain and Apple pledging to do better—would be replicated over and again in the decade plus to follow.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“What do you call a person who speaks one language?” The Apple manager waited for the punch line. “An American.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“All the tech competence China has now is not the product of Chinese tech leadership drawing in Apple,” O’Marah says. “It’s the product of Apple going in there and building the tech competence.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“What’s a reasonable thing to ask them? What are they likely to be able to do?” Paley says. “Whereas he was kinda saying, ‘You have no clue! You have no idea what the supplier might actually be capable of. So don’t be afraid to ask for the moon. Ask for everything you want. Ask for everything you need. If they can’t do it, they’ll say no.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

“This isn’t a story about the globalization of electronics, but rather, about its Chinafication.”
― Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company