Just Wondering: Is Foxconn Part of Entourage's Supply Chain?

Just reading about the employee suicides that have handed over in China at Foxconn and was wondering, are any of the components used in the Edge manufactured by Foxconn?

Just wondering, because a number of competing products (Kindle, iPad, etc) do rely on Foxconn products. If Entourage doesn't use them, that might be something that the company should feature in the marketing (appealing to idealistic college students and so forth).

I am not sure, don't mark my words. But on my box (where it got delivered) it said it came from Foxconn not sure if it was just a part or the device was made from them or not.

Foxconn is the largest contract manufacturer in the world. They build many of the things you use every day...including the enToruage eDGe. We also use them for distribution here in the States.

We are saddened by the deaths and monitoring the situation carefully to see if we can provide any positive influence on the lives of the employees.

TC

Originally Posted by dontpanic

Foxconn is the largest contract manufacturer in the world. They build many of the things you use every day

I was getting ready to say something similar. Foxconn makes so many things for so many electronics, it's likely hard to buy something that doesn't at least have some Foxconn parts.

I would love to see companies using Foxconn as a manufacturer start putting pressure on the company itself to, as you said, improve the lives of the employees. Tech industry is one of those industries where people don't automatically think about poor working conditions (as compared to shoes/clothing, which have a history of sweat-shops etc.).

I'm no expert on the matter, but I don't think I would compare the working conditions to the kinds of stories you hear about in the garment industry. Facilities are clean and new and generally safe. People do work very hard in the technology business in China, and there is strong social pressure to demonstrate a work ethic that might be very stressful to some.

I'll acknowledge I'm not an expert either, and it may be an unfair comparison, my only point was that people don't tend to think about "quality of work life" in the tech industry, whereas they are much more aware and pay attention to issues in other industries.

I was not intending to draw an "oranges-to-oranges" comparison between the garment industry and the tech industry.

apple has acted and has given the employees something at least.


http://gizmodo.com/5551748/rumor-app...conn-employees

@ dontpanic

Thanks for answering my question. I figured that it was pretty likely, but just curious if it actually was the case.


@A.Priori

Interesting. But as for Apple subsidizing individual Foxconn employees... I guess that I'm of two minds. On the one hand, it is a nice gesture (even if their motives are not altruistic; they just see it as cost-effective PR). On the other hand, if conditions are as bad as some claim (it's hard to separate fact from hyperbole), then maybe it's not the place of Western companies help patch things together... rather allow poor work conditions spur political pressure on the Chinese government to actually enforce the laws to protect workers. Although China is far from a democratic state, the threat of popular backlash does constrain their political aparatus to some degree.

But this probably is not the place for a lengthy discussion on Chinese politics...

http://gizmodo.com/5553223/another-f...hours-straight