[Leica] Leica and Apple

[shino at panix.com (Rei Shinozuka)]

Minor quibble--the first Mac was 128K.  We got ours with Imagewriter 
from Columbia as part of the Apple University initiative.

My other point, which you alluded to, was that Leica did in fact 
outsource design and production to Portugal and Canada and made 
partnerships in the Far East in the 60s and 70s.  For a variety of 
reasons they have to date reversed most if not all of these 
initiatives.  I'm not as familiar with all of the history as others on 
the list--perhaps they can explain Leica's outsource and insource history.

-rei


On 08/20/2011 08:02 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
> When Apple introduced the Mac 512 in 1984 it stressed the fact that its
> production line was almost fully automatic. Many manufacturing companies
> assume a labor component in the finished product of 50 to 85%. Apple 
> boasted
> a manufacturing labor component of about 1%. At the time I was chair of the
> Computer Committee of the City Univ. of New York. I, and several 
> colleagues,
> were treated to a tour of the Cupertino, CA facility with plenty of wine 
> and
> gourmet meals thrown in. NYC was in IBMs back yard and Apple wanted to gain
> a foothold. When we visited the plant there were very few employees 
> actually
> building Macs. Most of the manufacturing workers were in the assembly and
> test departments and in shipping. There were plenty of software engineers,
> programmers and paper jockeys.
>
> Apple tried, and mostly succeeded, in getting a profit margin of 30% on
> manufacturing when most of the competition worked hard to get a 15% margin.
> That explains, in part, why Apple, started 30 years ago by two guys in a
> Palo Alto garage, is now the most valuable company in the world with assets
> exceeding those of Exxon. It also has 76 billion USD in the bank.Apple has
> continued its philosophy of keeping manufacturing labor costs low by now
> assembling most of its hardware in China and Taiwan. Both countries have
> labor rates a fraction of those in the USA and Europe.
>
> Now if Leica kept its design facility in Germany but manufactured its
> cameras and lenses in Asia it would be far more price competitive in the
> world camera market. Quality need not suffer. My Rollei 35SE made in
> Singapore is the equal of another Rollei 35 made in Germany. My Olympus 
> DSLR
> 500 made in China works just fine.
>
> Leica is no stranger to offshore manufacturing. The Leica CL, made by
> Minolta in Japan, is a superb camera and its 40 mm Summicron, also made in
> Japan, is one of the Leica's best normal lenses. Leica itself has partnered
> with Fuji and Panasonic. It has made some of its best cameras and lenses in
> Portugal and Canada. If it adopted the Apple model, Leica's sales would
> increase, its profits would soar, and Herr Kaufman would be ecstatic. Te
> only unhappy people would be some members of the LUG. You know who you are.
>
> Larry Z
>
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