Monday, November 27, 2017

The iPhone X: Apple’s Ideology of American Techno-Exceptionalism

The iPhone X: Apple’s Ideology of American Techno-Exceptionalism



...Expectations were that the iPhone would at least catch up to, if not surpass, the bezel-less OLED-based flagship phones already offered by Samsung (the S8 and the Note 8) and LG (V30). It’s clear that by keeping its LCD platform around for another lifecycle, Apple effectively conceded that it could not produce an OLED iPhone in sufficient quantities, nor at a reasonably competitive price.

The reason for this is no secret: Apple doesn’t actually make OLED displays, and relies on its main competitor Samsung for its supply. This gives Samsung a deep competitive advantage as the market shifts towards OLED as the standard by allowing it to limit supply and control prices for perhaps the most important smartphone component. Despite nearly limitless amounts of money, Apple simply does not have the technology it needs to compete in the global marketplace....

...The primary issue of why the iPhone can’t be made by Americans is because America has no city that can rival the sheer technological ability of Shenzhen.Just across the Chinese border from Hong Kong, Shenzhen is known as “the world’s workshop.” It is the global capital of hardware technology innovation. If Foxconn is Apple’s Taiwanese-outsourced manufacturing cathedral, then it can only operate while embedded within Shenzhen’s futuristic, hyperdense, and mostly family-run electronics bazaar.

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