[Leica] Leica and Apple

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

The Mac SE's which came right after the 128 were made of all places in
Ireland. The one I have now a MacBook Pro was drop shipped here straight
from China.
-- 
Mark R.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/



> From: Rei Shinozuka <shino at panix.com>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:39:35 -0400
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica and Apple
> 
> 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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> 
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