Comment by fermienrico | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fermienrico | Hacker News Reader

There is so much information here. It is interesting to see how these suppliers look like something you'd find on Alibaba. Given how massive these companies must be (despite of how they appear to be), I doubt if they'd answer to low volume inquiries.

I found the guys that make Apple's USB cables: Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (Foxlink) http://www.foxlink.com/web/en/portfolio-item/usb-cable/#1474...

iPhone boxes!? Brilliant International Group Ltd http://www.brilliant-group.com/products_electronic/

Sim card trays: Chengdu Homin Technology Co., Ltd. http://www.cnhomin.com/

Watch/Camera glass: Biel Crystal Manufactory Ltd http://www.bielcrystal.com/

iPhone Haptics/Speakers module: AAC Technologies Holdings Inc. https://www.aactechnologies.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&...

Then you come across something truly extraordinary: Catcher http://www.catcher.com.tw/technology.aspx

Catcher has a market cap of 7 Billion USD. They own and operate 18,000 CNC machines, the largest fleet of CNC machines in the world. This is probably where iPhone case and Macbook Unibody is manufactured.

Edit: I found a video of Catcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UknhWoL6GWQ Edit: Tons of information on Catcher

>virtually zero information

Considering it's a Taiwanese company, you probably should search in Chinese.

They even have a Wikipedia article: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%AF%E6%88%90%E7%A7%91%E6...

Also, this is a public company (TWSE: 2474), it's far from "virtually zero information" even in English.

Yes, you are correct. That's how I found out about their market cap. I was searching the wrong term - "Catcher Taiwan" or "Catcher Manufacturing" returns many results.

I read an article a while ago (probably via HN) about why Apple probably wouldn't switch to making ceramic phone cases - they've invested so much in CNC machines, basically occupying a CNC manufacturer's entire production for years. I mean milling a million phone cases A DAY. Those are scales I just can't imagine.

I believe this is likely the article you are referring to, was widely shared at the time.

> http://atomicdelights.com/blog/why-your-next-iphone-wont-be-...

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. Apple has shown in the past that they aren't too worried about the sunk cost fallacy. If there's a new manufacturing method that adds enough value to be worthwhile, they will jump in on it whole hog.

I was wondering the other day, at what point these huge product launches make life more difficult for Apple and their suppliers vs the positive benefit (community attention, PR, etc).

You release, say, a new phone today, for sale today. It costs $800. You will keep making and selling the same device for the next 364 days (at least). Over the next year, the parts become less expensive because newer technology is always coming out. So it makes sense for the buyer to pay $800 for it today versus $800 for it in 364 days when we are 1 day away from the release of something incrementally better for the exact same cost.

In order to have large enough supply to satisfy the Day 1 demand, you have probably been producing and stockpiling the item for weeks, which has all kinds of inventory and storage costs. For the next month or three you can produce flat out to (try to) satisfy demand, but there is a backlog for awhile, which, at least in theory, harms demand/customer experience. Then, once you process the backlog, you have to scale back capacity for the next (say) 9 months, until a new product comes out.

Now, of course, there are good things about this. You can probably produce products flat-out for 4 months. You get huge internet-wide buzz, much to the dismay of those who hate hearing about nothing but Apple's Magical (TM) new products for a week or two before and after the Big Reveal. You get PR all over the internet and newspapers and TV. Some demand is almost certainly induced by the sense that if you don't buy on day 1, you might have to wait some unknown amount of time before supply catches up with demand.

So, I don't know, but I'm really curious about all of the considerations taken when making decisions like this.

Some of these companies listed are holding companies for other companies, so the list isn't fully comprehensive.

Molex, for example, isn't listed. But its owner (Koch Industries) is.

> Given how massive these companies must be (despite of how they appear to be), I doubt if they'd answer to low volume inquiries.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I work at a low-medium volume electronics manufacturer, and have direct contacts at a few of these. They're perfectly happy to spend a few $$ on sales reps across a wide range of customers.

That said, we don't tend to purchase directly from most of these companies; at lower volumes we often have to rely on distributor networks.

Can you share some strategies of breaking through the noise and finding reputable excellent suppliers in Asia?

I am also familiar with quite a few of the companies on that list, despite the company I work for being a long way from Apple scale. It was particularly fascinating to see some companies that we have rejected for being terrible, and other top quality manufacturers you would expect Apple to use that are missing.

Agreed. I'll some of the reasons that we've rejected manufacturers (for being terrible) disappear when you're buying 10^7+ parts/year. I'm sure Apple has no trouble getting development support or reasonable lead times from Maxim, for example.

Unlike smaller engineering firms, who mostly have to take the parts they can get off the shelf to operate, Apple is at a big enough scale that companies will go way out of the way to make parts that suit their needs. It's a whole different ballgame.

Those Cheng Uei USB cables look exactly like the one Google shipped with the first Pixel, down to the blue plastic cable clip. They must be well-regarded.

Pretty sure the one with the white clips shipped with the Google Home Mini, except, not green plugs.

The Home Mini shipped with a DC adapter with cable stuck on, I have one and it's definitely a different cable, and no clip at all.

These are great links. Thanks for sharing and your work.

no wonder why shenzen is iphone land..

Hardware capital of the world.

Yes, hard to believe, the guy who was making molds for internal plastic parts up to ifone 4 had a shop in garage few kilometres away from my workplace in downtown Shenzhen.

It is 2018 now, and Shanzhai garage factories are no more.

>Then you come across something truly extraordinary with virtually zero information on the internet besides their website: Catcher

:)

Were you living under a rock?

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