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Portables Hardware

China to Be Laptop Leader 294

Posted by michael from the guess-where-your-powerbook-is-made dept.
prostoalex writes "IMS Research says that by the end of the year People Republic of China might become world's biggest laptop manufacturer. The plants will be largely owned by Taiwanese manufacturers, though. Taiwan is current #1."
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China to Be Laptop Leader More

China to Be Laptop Leader

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  • HELP! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 10, 2003 @12:54AM (#6658162)
    Help! I'm trapped inside a laptop factory!

  • "Leader" (Score:1, Insightful)

    by floamy ( 608691 )
    Hasn't china been the "leader" of manufacturing stuff foreverish? By "leader" you would think they were responsible for the R&D and design of the laptops, but from what I've read it just appears they can have more sweatshops than anyone else.
    • Hasn't china been the "leader" of manufacturing stuff foreverish?

      If by "stuff" you mean things bought for 25 cents from vending machines when you exit the super market, then yes.

  • Interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Negative Response ( 650136 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @12:56AM (#6658170)
    Frequency of stories about Chinese tech stuff certainly picked up recently. What's going on there?

    • Re:Interesting... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by appleLaserWriter ( 91994 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:08AM (#6658414)
      China has set a goal to be a world leader in semiconductor manufacture and a competitive force in software development in the next few years. I'm sure there will be more news to come.

      Language is a major roadblock for Chinese IT. Either you have to learn english or use a cumbersome encoding system to work in Mandarin. This will work as a slowing factor in software development and motivate research into new data entry methods.
      • Apparently you know very little about Mandarin, or it's input. For Japanese input, there is a big speed penalty. But Chinese input is faster.

        Most people in Taiwan use either bpmf input or canjie. Most people in mainland China use either pinyin or canjie. Bpmf and pinyin are phonetic input methods which are approximately the same speed as English. Canjie input is based upon the structure of a character instead, and is MUCH faster than English input. I can type over 200 words per minute with canjie, an
        • Apparently you know very little about Mandarin, or it's input. For Japanese input, there is a big speed penalty.

          Err, no, there isn't. The approach used is different (predictive phonetic input for Japanese vs character stroke input for Chinese), but that's because the underlying languages are also radically different, despite the superficial similarity of the writing system.

          Most Japanese these days bemoan (a little exaggeratedly) that they've forgotten to write by hand, since it's so much faster and ea

        • When's the last time you hired a programmer because they could type 100 words a minute? Does a sysadmin who types twice as fast as another accomplish twice as much?

          The limiting factor in Information Technology is, and always will be, the speed of human thought. Being able to type faster is not an advantage. I can only type 35 words a minute that has always been plenty.

          Or maybe it's just that I think before I code. If the developers and sysadmins in China don't do the same, it won't matter what language th

    • Visit and see.... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by djupedal ( 584558 )
      ...jobs, jobs, and more jobs. I'm leaving South Korea to work in China soon, and I couldn't be happier.

      Tech is just one part, but business is booming, and now is the time to get in.

  • Hey... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Kenrod ( 188428 )

    We've been worried about China invading Taiwan - looks like Taiwan invaded China to me...

  • "Laptop Leader"?? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tgrotvedt ( 542393 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @12:58AM (#6658181) Journal
    The leadership we're talking about here is production only. I don't see how having more low wage workers to exploit equates to development leadership. I don't mean to use the word "exploit" too negatively though, this will probably be a good thing.

    The more low-paid jobs available, the more competition for labour, and as a result, better working conditions and pay.
    • More competition for very low paying jobs puts the people in general at a disadvantage. Who will care that you are sick and can't work if 2 million other people can fill your place and are EAGER to do so?
      • I said "more competition for labour", that is, the corporations competing for workers, not competition for jobs on the part of the workers.
    • Original Design Manufacturer. They are not just about cheap production labor -- they design the whole computer from motherboard out, create entire product roadmaps etc... and deliver it on a platter to OEMs who want to slap a label on it.

      they are taking away all the business from tradition EMS type outsourcers (Solectron, Flextronics, Jabil, et al) in desktop computers and are on the move in laptops

      The perspective that it's entirely about cheap production labor is both naive and flat wrong.
    • When you become the leading supplier of technology and those same factories can be used to build pretty much any technology, who says the engineering has to come from the US?

      You can call a chinese manufacturing company, tell them what you want the product to do, and (assuming thye don't already have such a product) they will design it (or add your eatures to their existing product), build a prototype, and schedule production and delivery for you. All you need is an idea and a marketing plan and you, too, c

    • "I don't mean to use the word "exploit" too negatively though, this will probably be a good thing."

      Why would it be a good thing?

      If the workers are happy working for dirt then it's good for the company. They can make greater profit (because you know damn well they won't drop prices).

      If the workers demand higher wages then they can..

      1) Get fired and replaced with cheaper labor if the unemployment rate is high.

      2) The company can move the factory to vietnam or africa or someplace where they can get cheaper
    • The leadership we're talking about here is production only. I don't see how having more low wage workers to exploit equates to development leadership (...) The more low-paid jobs available, the more competition for labour, and as a result, better working conditions and pay.

      The problem is that China uses prisoners of concentration camps [wikipedia.org] as the main source of "cheap labour". Which is not really their own invention, Hitler and Stalin tried it years before the Chinese. However, the example of the Third Reich
    • The more low-paid jobs available, the more competition for labour, and as a result, better working conditions and pay
      Unless there's an excess of labour. I have come to know of millions of unemployed Ethiopeans for a start.

    • The more low-paid jobs available, the more competition for labour, and as a result, better working conditions and pay.

      This seems counter-intuitive to me...
      The worse the working conditions are, the better they are?

      Actually, the only thing that can (under capitalism and most other systems) increase working conditions seem to be a surplus of work opportunities. If there's a surplus of workes - e.g. massive unemployment - most of them are going to be pretty miserable, even those who have work. (Not to sound c

  • Well, it figures (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Slave labor tends to reduce costs to just about the bare minimum. Maybe we'll start seeing some brand new $500 laptops soon. I kind of feel bad to think that a group of poor Chinese kids will toil for hours assembling my computer for pennies a day. Children get easily distracted, especially when they're worrying about their mother being tortured by the factory manager for falling behind in production.

  • Not News (Score:3, Funny)

    by westyvw ( 653833 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @12:59AM (#6658186)
    Ya Think China might make laptops cheap? And make many of them? Thats NEWS HOW?

    Course I want them for 99 cents like everything else I would buy from china.....

  • hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)

    by prichardson ( 603676 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:00AM (#6658190) Journal
    China to be largest manufacturer of laptops....

    Not to troll, but I think that a lot of laptops that will come out of china will suck, just like a lot of the other toys and electronics that come out of China. On the other hand, it probably would drive the price down enough for me to afford one in addition to my desktop. Personally, I won't be getting one of these laptops from China because I am a mac freak and never want to use any OS other than Mac OS X ever again.

    I think that quality needs to be emphasized for electronics. Laptops are diing long before their useful life is up. Also, things that don't go obsolete very fast (DVD players, Stereos, VCRs, the like) shou;dn't break in six months. I know this violates short term business models (if it breaks they have to buy a new one and we get another sale). Planned obselescence is a terrible thing.

    • Re:hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110@@@anu...edu...au> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:08AM (#6658226) Journal
      Not to troll, but I think that a lot of laptops that will come out of china will suck, just like a lot of the other toys and electronics that come out of China. On the other hand, it probably would drive the price down enough for me to afford one in addition to my desktop. Personally, I won't be getting one of these laptops from China because I am a mac freak and never want to use any OS other than Mac OS X ever again.


      This is what people used to say about Taiwan, and before Taiwan, Japan.

      Now, Taiwan is responsible for producing a number of Apple's computers. They also supply memory to computer manufacturers all over the world.

      Japan started out life by creating second-rate consumer goods like watches and cameras. While their watches haven't improved that much (j/k), Nikon et al produce some of the best cameras you can buy. Not that it was always like that. And what about Honda/Toyota, etc? When they first came out, those were the cars you bought when you'd just been declared bankrupt. Now, they're some of the most reliable cars you can buy; Japan pushed the just-in-time production model and numerous other innovations, and their automotive industry is one of the most vibrant in the world.

      And so it will be with China. So while now you might say how crap they are, there's a US $100bn per year trade deficit between the US and China in China's favour (I think that figure is correct), and all that money will continue to go towards making China the new Japan.

      -- james
      • Well, sure, Japan no longer produces so much cheap junk. That's why Taiwan, and now China ate their lunch.

        • Re:hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)

          by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110@@@anu...edu...au> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:56AM (#6658376) Journal
          Well, sure, Japan no longer produces so much cheap junk. That's why Taiwan, and now China ate their lunch.


          And that's how it works! Eventually the amount of money China makes from the "cheap junk" (btw, I would hardly call RAM from Taiwan "cheap junk") will raise the standard of living, education and level of innovation. Suddenly, the "cheap junk" China turns out won't be cheap or junky any more. Wages will go up, and quality of goods will go up - and with it, the prices of the goods. A hole will open for another poor country to start producing the "cheap junk".

          China is already on the road out of "cheapness". Did you know that a very large selection of the good "English" hi-fi equipment is now made in China? The quality of these components is quite high, too.

          Taiwan is on the road to be at a Japanese-level manufacturer, and China is on the road to be a Taiwanese-level manufacturer.

          And, in case you hadn't guessed by now, this is all basic economics - otherwise known as the Trickle Down Theory.

          -- james

          • Re:hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Malcontent ( 40834 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:38AM (#6658474)
            "Wages will go up, and quality of goods will go up - and with it, the prices of the goods. A hole will open for another poor country to start producing the "cheap junk"."

            Once the companies leave then a bust cycle will begin. There will be a prolonged period of unemployment and depression/recession. Eventually the standard of living will be pretty much where it was before. Maybe once the cambodians (or wherever the jobs went) get uppidy and demand more money the jobs might come back but more likely they will migrate to africa or someplace even more destitute.

            Eventually some country will imprison a sizable minority of it's people and offer their labor for cheap to companies. This form of legalized slavery will start another chain reaction and before long a sizable chunk of the humans on this planet will be imprisoned and enslaved. People will be jailed for having one to two marijuana seeds for ten years and in prison they will work for AT&T making telemarketing calls.

            Oh wait a minute that's already happening right here in the USA.
            http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispat ch/200 1-11-23/pols_naked3.html
            http://www.prisontalk.co m/forums/archive/topic/115 05.html
            http://kcd.com/goa/issues/2000/q1/Jail.ht m

            I am sure these kinds of prison labor programs will be expanded hugely in the US and overseas. Imagine a couple of million slaves in china, US or africa manufacturing toys or sneakers for next to nothing. Of course the US prisons will have to degrade to the level of chinese or african prisons to compete.

            • Once the companies leave then a bust cycle will begin. There will be a prolonged period of unemployment and depression/recession. Eventually the standard of living will be pretty much where it was before. Maybe once the cambodians (or wherever the jobs went) get uppidy and demand more money the jobs might come back but more likely they will migrate to africa or someplace even more destitute.

              This is alarmist and unwarranted. Name me a country like the US or the UK that has developed and then as you claim "

              • "This is alarmist and unwarranted. Name me a country like the US or the UK that has developed and then as you claim "undeveloped" when everyone left. It doesn't happen."

                It hasn't happened because up to now it has been difficult to move businesses back and forth. Due to the efforts of the WTA and other organizations it's now simple. You are already seeing jobs flowing overseas from the US. It will only accelerate as time geso by.

                "Free trade is a good thing(TM). People that argue against it on economic (not
            • I'll say they will have to degrade, considering it costs over $22K/year to house a prisoner in the US (not counting amortization of the $100K per cell construction costs) it would be MUCH cheaper to just hire people for minimum wage =) Also most manufacturing has left the US and Japan, have standards of living suddenly plumeted into the toiket? No you say, maybe that's because we have become a service and idea driven economy, much like the enriched parts of China and India will become. Do I think that the w

      • Re:hmmm (Score:3, Funny)

        by evilviper ( 135110 )
        It's time we bring back the bumper-sticker:

        "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Rice-Burners."

        I guess changing "Drive" to "Buy" would be appropriate.
      • This is what people used to say about Taiwan, and before Taiwan, Japan. Now, Taiwan is responsible for producing a number of Apple's computers (...) Japan started out life by creating second-rate consumer goods like watches and cameras. While their watches haven't improved that much (j/k), Nikon et al produce some of the best cameras you can buy. Not that it was always like that. And what about Honda/Toyota, etc? (...) And so it will be with China.

        Sir, I think you're comparing apples and oranges now (n

        • Re:hmmm (Score:2, Interesting)

          by chenyu ( 134524 )
          Another person that doesn't understand China.

          Nepotism and lack of transparency are not as big of problems as you think they are. If you are a Western company doing business in China, you will most likely find the brother-in-law of the Politiburo, put him on your board of directors, and pay him enough so that he doesn't mess things up for you. It doesn't cost that much more than a good lawyer would, and if brother in law of Politburo one demands too much, you can always drop him and go to nephew of Politb

    • Re:hmmm (Score:4, Informative)

      by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:22AM (#6658281)
      "Personally, I won't be getting one of these laptops from China"

      Actually, all of Apple's notebooks are made in Taiwan by "Quanta Computer Inc." and "Eslitegroup Computer System". They may very well soon be made in China, if it is cheaper to produce them there.

      Apple may represent "quality" to many people, but the reality is that the're made by the same companies as every other computer. The chips are made by Motorola/IBM/TSMC (vs. AMD/Intel/TSMC for PCs), and the drives/LCD screens/keyboards/cases are likely made by the same corporations.

      • Re:hmmm (Score:3, Informative)

        by hype7 ( 239530 )

        Apple may represent "quality" to many people, but the reality is that the're made by the same companies as every other computer.

        This is OT, but it deserves a response.

        It's not just the parts, but how they're put together that makes a product well designed. The fact is, the quality of components that go into making a Renault and a BMW and not that different. However, in most cases the BMW has had better initial design, so that the parts work together better. Stresses, tensions, component placement, etc al

        • Re:hmmm (Score:2)

          by KH ( 28388 )
          I got to agree to ACs above.

          I can't think of using any other laptops from Apple, and I do own an iBook and writing this on an 12 inch PowerBook, but I wish they were made in Japan.

          I saw a lot of QC problems with the iBook (breaking off the backlight cable, twice (!), breaking off the AirProt antenna, and power supply acting funky) and this PowerBook is also showing QC problem (case not fitting right, and of course the heat).

          Still, it would be unaffordably expensive if they were made in some other places

  • Still, they are to be controlled by western corps. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gotr00t ( 563828 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:00AM (#6658192) Journal
    Though the simple task of manufacture has been handed down to the Chinese, it is still the western companies that design and market the devices.

    I think that we all know that mainland China manufactures a lot of stuff, but what does this prove? That cheap labor attracts business? It comes to me not as any suprise that this was eventually going to happen. A major leap forward would be that China has the most laptop users in the world or possibly that a Chinese computer company has outsold one of western counterparts, but this is really no big suprise.

    • Though the simple task of manufacture has been handed down to the Chinese, it is still the western companies that design and market the devices.

      This is a troll, I would mod it down if I have mod points. Get your fact first. A lot of notebook computers are designed by Taiwanese companies (ever heard about how Asus is heading towards ODM on notebook, not to mention Compal?), not the traditional western companies. And most probably Asia is the test point for marketing the latest model of notebook computer

  • Laptops.. ehh (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ThoreauHD ( 213527 )
    I'm more concerned about the missle manufacturers producing parts over there. The DOD seems to have lost their fortitude when it comes to executing people for treason. Perhaps that will change before they nuke us for interfering with Taiwan.

    I think laptops fall into the category of toilet paper and rice balls. Who gives a shit. Nobody's gonna die cause your crappy Dell can't run WinblowZ 2010.

    • Re:Laptops.. ehh (Score:2, Insightful)

      by shione ( 666388 )
      Actually you should care. If China stayed a shithouse state then you're more likely to be 'nuked'. Look at how n korea is and how they envy the south. Not very peaceful there is it?
      but I put nuked in commas because you wouldn't go attack someone that owes you $100b each year. Nor would you be building the worlds largest dam or the worlds tallest building or the world's longest trans-oceanic Bridge (completed) or the worlds biggest condom [216.239.39.104] just to risk losing them all in a war.

      Regarding your comment about 'w
    • Umm, you don't think China with its vast resources and large pool of educated personell can design missle guidence chips, don't make me laugh. Remember we designed accurate ICBM's in the 70's when computers were in their infancy, today it's a sucker who doesn't think any industrial country can do the same. Hell you don't even have to be all that industrialized, North Korea makes their own and they are about as poor a country as you can get (are they the only country in the world that spends a higher percent

  • In Other News... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Valar ( 167606 )
    People are finally realizing China isn't quite as bush league as they thought.

    Seriously though, China is a manufacturing superpower. They have lots of high tech neighbors willing to put money into China (and they aren't doing so badly with their R&D either), a huge population, and a large/rapidly expanding production capacity. They really are in an ideal place to manufacture all kinds of electronics.

    • Re:In Other News... (Score:3, Informative)

      by burns210 ( 572621 )
      ya, and the cheap labor helps too...
      Do you think China would be as popular a place to manufacture things in if it had salary laws similar to the US?
      Granted, there are many things that give
      China a strong hold in the 'made in X' market, but not having to pay each worker the equvilent of 6-7 US Dollars an hour has to be a huge factor.

  • I don't know about you... (Score:4, Funny)

    by imag0 ( 605684 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:06AM (#6658218) Homepage
    .. But I welcome our Chineese Laptop overlords.

  • local Consumption ? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ramzak2k ( 596734 ) * on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:06AM (#6658219)
    I dont see to many "Made in China" laptops at the stores here in Canada. The one i am typing this on is made in Japan (Toshiba satellite) and another major laptop brand Dell has all its production facilities in US except maybe the desktop units for the japanese market. [com.com]

    • Re:local Consumption ? (Score:4, Informative)

      by cperciva ( 102828 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:14AM (#6658254) Homepage
      I [don't yet] see [too] many "Made in China" laptops at the stores here in Canada.

      That's beacuse companies don't like to advertise that fact. Companies often outsource their production; and as long as they do some basic testing, who will know the difference?

      I don't know if this is still the case, but at one point IBM was outsourcing the production of its low-end laptops to Acer; Acer is one of the companies investing in mainland China.

      IBM laptops aren't going to be labelled "Made in China" any time soon, but they could certainly have been made there.
      • Oh? Mine's labeled "Made in Mexico," which is hardly any different. Seriously, in the realm of electronics you either buy foreign or you don't buy at all. Is there anyone who still doesn't know this? My father, the most rabid "Made in USA" advocate I know of, long since gave up on trying to buy USA-made tech. It was a combination of resignation (you just can't do it) and recognition (10 or 20 years ago, stuff coming from Asia really was junk; but now it's as good as or better than American stuff). And
      • My T40 (IBM's flagship model and best-seller) says "Made in China" on the bottom. In fact, most T40s and other product lines are made there. The build quality is extremely good.

      • That's beacuse companies don't like to advertise that fact. Companies often outsource their production; and as long as they do some basic testing, who will know the difference?

        So true. Lucky for us that we live in a country governed by the rule of law. Companies might not want to disclose where their goods came from, but that's kinda too bad. [customs.gov]

    • Expecting the label to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is naive.

      I have a Toshiba Satellite 3000-214 [tuxmobil.org] which I know is essentially the Compal ACL-00 [compal.com]. The label says "Assembled in Europe" (Germany, I think), but that implies manufactured elsewhere, probably China or Taiwan.

      In the UK it's common practice for consumer electronics to be assembled here, typically by factories funded significantly by government "regional (re)development" grants. Doing so allows goods to be considered

    • On account of Dell closing all it's U.S. laptop factories, you can bet your money that the models don't magically appear out of thin air--they are made in other countries.

      Actually, the laptops aren't only made in other countries, but they are made by OTHER companies who build stuff and slap the Dell logo on them. I think IBM is the only company that actually makes its own laptops, whether here or across seas.

  • Quality (Score:2)

    by rf0 ( 159958 )
    You get what you pay for. Now all off this might push prices down which is good but what about the quality? Some of the laptops I've used from China (which were bought by the company I worked at) and TBH they sucked. Unreliable, bad screens. Now I don't want to tar all of China with the same brush but I can't help but think this will happen.

    My $0.02

    Rus

  • The problem with Taiwanese business man (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BurningTyger ( 626316 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:17AM (#6658263)
    >IMS Research says that by the end of the year People Republic of China
    >might become world's biggest laptop manufacturer. The plants
    >will be largely owned by Taiwanese manufacturers, though.
    >Taiwan is current #1.

    The problem with business man in general is that they drift where the money is, and care less about the impact to their own country (if they even consider Taiwan to be a country in the first place, regardless if they were born there).

    The impact to the shift of labtop industry from Taiwan to China (by Taiwanese company) are two folds.

    First, China gains a competitive edge to the industry, and to the overall economy of China and can later be used to bargain against Taiwan. (Heck, China already is using the new found money from its booming economy to buy 3rd world nations' support against Taiwan)

    Second, Taiwan loses leadership in the industry, the economy suffers, unemplyeement rate increases due to the moving of manufacturing plants to China.

    Most Taiwanese people still fail to realize that China is still a hostile nation towards Taiwan. And China still threaten to invade or bomb Taiwan if Taiwan refused to reunite with China.

    God.. I mean... can you imagine American business man supporting Iraq so that Iraq has more money to build missles to aim at US ??

  • Most are made in China. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kurt Russell ( 627436 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @01:34AM (#6658318)
    ODM links [toplaptops.net]
    I think Apple powerbooks are now made by Compal.

  • NewsFlash! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr. Bent ( 533421 ) <ben AT int DOT com> on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:05AM (#6658405) Homepage
    This just in: They make stuff in China.

    Stay tuned for these other breaking developments...

    - Scientists discover it's really cold in Siberia.
    - U.S. Justice Department admits life not fair.
    - FDA Bombshell: Eating too much can make you fat.

    all this and Andy Rooney, tonight on 60 minutes.
  • Mine came with a fortune cookie:

    The future will bring you many Blue Screens.

  • Well, yeah... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by softspokenrevolution ( 644206 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @02:35AM (#6658467) Journal
    China has a large and well educated population that is increasingly moving toward High Tech items, because other countires (such as Taiwan) have traditionally dominated these markets and have kept pries rather high. Using cheaper (criminally, but that's editorializing) labor they can bring to market a cheaper product (of similar quality). Heck, even software jobs are moving to south east Asia and the Indian subcontinent, in an airing of Talk of the Nation a few weeks ago, they were discussing the high levels of education and low cost of workers for fields from mechanical engineering, to software design and tech support in foreign countries, especially since the incerasing wiredness of the world and these countries in particular makes it easier (and more cost effective) than ever.

    I think that in the next few years there will be an even greater outsourcing of these sorts of projects. India and Bangladesh are typically cheaper markets then China to work in, and we can probably look forward to those countries entering into these markets.

    Now for my editorial, because I have to have it (you can stop reading if you'd like). with the US job market as tight as it is right now, it is a major ethical dillema to be outsourcing High paying jobs to countires where the worker that would make $60,000 a year here, makes $5,000 over there. It puts the US economy in grave danger of collapsing in on itself as these lucrative jobs are removed and th emarket has to return to a service and agricultural based economy (the latter of which is becoming a smaller employer but larger business by the year). In all hopes this would see the rise in the standards of living for the average person in China, Micronesia, wherever, but it doesn't seem like the transition would be quick as workers there would have to get it in their heads that they deserrve that amount of money. (To sum, it's like an emerging basketball trend, American players (on the whole) have no actual proficiency with teh sport (though they have a great deal of raw physical talent), and eastern European players do. This means an increasing influx of Eastern European players until they become complacent in their position and the Americans learn to play the game (with little things like passing, and team work)).

    Ideally, (and I'm being naive) there is a way to protect American jobs while increasing (or ostensibly increasing) the standard of living in foreign countries. If the US government, or the AMerican consumer, would refuse to allow the sale of (or purchase) goods that were manufactured or generated by workers who were not treated equally to their American counterparts. Of course, in teh drive for cheap stuff there are no rules. [end]

  • It's A New World Record! (Score:3, Funny)

    by SEWilco ( 27983 ) on Sunday August 10, 2003 @04:20AM (#6658665) Journal
    People Republic of China might become world's biggest laptop manufacturer.

    Generally people have wanted the smallest laptop, but someone has to set the record for the biggest laptop.

  • China might become world's biggest laptop manufacturer.

    Yeah, they'll usurp the laptop market with ultracheap, super low quality products that don't work properly just as they've done with most electronics. No wait, most products you find in North America period!

    Strange how business people in capitalist countries will opt for inferior products from an opposing communist country (with a horrible human rights record) just to save a few bucks and be competitive in the free market society they hold so dear. The irony is too much.

  • How low can you go? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )
    It seems to me like the Taiwanese have moved their production to China where labour is cheaper. Similar to how companies that moved their call centres and programming teams to India are now looking for even cheaper places.

    What bugs me is that I'm an unemployed programmer, and I can't compete with people who consider 4000/year a good wage. Plus, anyone who employs me needs to pay tax, social security and contribute to my pension.

    Where will it end? Is someone gonna code for food?
  • Literally prices are way too high for laptops and has anyone looked at used laptops? I swear they've averaged at 1 dollar per mhz for any decent laptop without any serious defects. I wish my truck had that kind of depreciation.
  • "The plants will be largely owned by Taiwanese manufacturers, though. Taiwan is current #1."

    At least until they get the shit blown out of them by the massive bulk of missiles China has produced specifically for targeting them...

  • It's sad that Slashdot readers, who usually have a wide knowledge of many different social and political fields, and help defeat the stereotype that geeks don't know about anything, are so xenophobic when it comes to China.

    This doesn't apply to everyone on here, but it seems that plenty of people only seem to know about Tiananmen Square and prison labor. Someone on here said that "the HUGE majority" of products made in China come from prison labor. Just on the face of this, I am going to guess that 600

  • You can find more information in the Almanac of China's Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. I found the 2001 edition in the Seattle Public Library about a year ago. The 2002 edition should be available now since the edition-year indicates the year that is being reported on.

    Some of the numbers were amazing. I don't remember the pizza / hamburger / noodles metric, but I do recall that a C230 Mercedes was priced at about 800k Yuan, which is about US$100k (a $30k car in USA, and the smallest Mercedes sold

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