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-Sydney

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Apple is expected to join the 5G revolution in 2020, when the company will purportedly launch an iPhone capable of taking advantage of the next-generation cellular technology, according to a report Friday.

Citing a source familiar with Apple's plans, Fast Company reports Apple intends to use Intel's 5G-capable 8161 modem in an iPhone slated for release in 2020. The handset will be Apple's first product to support the fast 5G standard, which was finalized earlier this year.

Intel is developing the 8161 with a transition chip called the 8060, silicon that will be used to prototype and test 5G in iPhone, sources said. Of note, the 8161 will be fabricated using Intel's 10-nanometer process, fabrication technology that promises boosts in speed and efficiency.

Originally expected to be ready for mass manufacturing in 2016, Intel's 10nm process has seen numerous setbacks as the company tackles production snags. Late last month, interim CEO Bob Swan said progress is being made toward volume production, but the long-delayed chip technology is unlikely to be ready until 2019.

Intel is anticipated to remain Apple's sole baseband chip supplier when 5G does arrive on iPhone, though the tech giant has been "unhappy" with the chipmaker, the report says. Details were left unmentioned, though Fast Company speculates heat dissipation issues with the 8060 modem are to blame for strained relations.

As explained by the source, carriers transitioning to 5G will initially rely on millimeter-wave spectrum, a technology that places a large amount of stress on cellular modems. The higher-than-normal processing requirements generate excess heat and detracts from handset battery life, issues with which Intel is grappling.

While the problem Apple reportedly opened discussions with existing supplier MediaTek to furnish modem chips if Intel is unable to solve the problems.

Just as 4G LTE is the current standard bearer in wireless communications technology, so will 5G see rapid adoption by handset makers in the coming years. Industry stalwart Qualcomm is reportedly pushing up production of its 5G-capable chipsets in anticipation of the first major smartphone releases in 2019.

Apple is typically slow to adopt the fastest cellular standards in its iPhone line. The first iPhone, for example, launched without support for the then-cutting-edge 3G standard, while 4G LTE integration arrived somewhat late with iPhone 5 in 2012.

A 5G-capable iPhone launch in 2020 should ramp well with existing infrastructure rollout plans. Carriers are only in the very early stages of seeding their respective networks with compatible base stations, and proliferation toward widespread availability will be slow going. For example, Verizon this month delivered 5G Home, a home broadband service touted as the world's first commercial 5G deployment.

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Apple plans to launch 5G iPhone in 2020, report says

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Apple is expected to join the 5G revolution in 2020, when the company will purportedly launch an iPhone capable of taking advantage of the next-generation cellular technology, according to a report Friday. Citing a source familiar with Apple's plans, Fast Company reports Apple intends to use Intel's 5G-capable 8161 modem in an iPhone slated for release in 2020.

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brooke

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In the long history of smartphones-cell phones that behave like palm-sized computers-no doubt one of the most revolutionary has been the iPhone, which made its debut on June 29, 2007. While the technology was state-of-the-art, we still can't point to a single inventor because over 200 patents were part of its manufacture. Still, a few names, like Apple designers John Casey and Jonathan Ive stand out as instrumental in bringing Steve Jobs' vision for a touchscreen smartphone to life.

While Apple had produced the Newton MessagePad, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, from 1993 to 1998, the first concept for a true iPhone-type device came about in 2000. That's when Apple designer John Casey sent some concept art around via internal email for something he called the Telipod-a telephone and iPod combination.

The Telipod never made it into production, but Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs did believe that cell phones with a touchscreen function and access to the internet would become the wave of the future of information access. Accordingly, Jobs set a team of engineers to tackle the project.

Apple's first smartphone was the ROKR E1, released on Sept. 7, 2005. It was the first mobile phone to use iTunes, software that Apple had debuted in 2001. However, the ROKR was an Apple and Motorola collaboration, and Apple was not happy with Motorola's contributions. Within a year, Apple discontinued support for the ROKR. On Jan. 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone at the Macworld convention. It went on sale on June 29, 2007.

Apple's chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, is largely responsible for the look and feel of the iPhone. Born in Britain in February 1967, Ive was also the principal designer of the iMac, the titanium and aluminum PowerBook G4, MacBook, unibody MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

The first smartphone that had no hard keypad for dialing, the iPhone was entirely a touchscreen device that broke new technological ground with its multitouch controls. In addition to being able to use the screen to select, users could scroll and zoom as well with a finger swipe.

The iPhone also introduced the accelerometer, a motion sensor that allowed the user to turn the phone sideways and have the display automatically rotate to suit. While it was not the first device to have apps or software add-ons, it was the first smartphone to manage the apps market successfully.

The iPhone 4S was released with the addition of a voice-activated personal assistant called Siri. Siri is a piece of artificial intelligence that can do numerous tasks for the user, and it can learn and adapt to better serve that user as well. With the addition of Siri, the iPhone was no longer a mere phone or music player-it literally put an entire world of information at the user's fingertips.

And the updates just keep coming. The iPhone 10 (also known as iPhone X), released in November 2017, for instance, is the first iPhone to use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen technology, as well as wireless charging and facial recognition technology to unlock the phone.

In 2018, Apple released three versions of the iPhone X: iPhone Xs, iPhone X Max (a larger version of the Xs, and iPhone Xr, said to be built for the budget-conscious. The key enhancement for these three new phones, according to a recent review in CNET, is a better sensor and a new image processor on the A12 Bionic chip combine to enable what Apple calls "Smart HDR," an improvement on the camera.

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What Team Was Responsible for Making the First iPhone?

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In the long history of smartphones-cell phones that behave like palm-sized computers-no doubt one of the most revolutionary has been the iPhone, which made its debut on June 29, 2007. While the technology was state-of-the-art, we still can't point to a single inventor because over 200 patents were part of its manufacture.

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Macee

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Apple's High-End iPhone Production Will Move to India, Report Says

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Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn will move its iPhone production to India, according to a new Reuters report.

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Max

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Introduced in 2007, the iPhone has revolutionized the way we communicate, work, and live. Throughout so many years, millions of people have loved this smartphone. But even the most ardent fans might not know these interesting facts about the iPhone. Let's dive into some of the most surprising incidents and stories behind Apple's iconic device.

10 iPhone facts that you didn't know about [Infographic]

1. The Jesus Phone

When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone on the 29th of June 2007, the world saw it as nothing short of miraculous. It had revolutionary features, blending a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator. Hundreds of customers had rushed to Apple Store across the country to buy the iPhone.

Following its huge success, a large section of media in the U.S. nicknamed iPhone - " The Jesus Phone." It set the stage for modern smartphones and proved to be a transformative moment in tech history.

2. The first iPhone had a plastic screen

The initial prototypes of the iPhone featured a plastic screen like the iPod. The iPhone you see in the keynote video of January 2007 was also a plastic display. However, during testing of the prototype, Jobs noticed how easily the screens scratched from keys and other pocket items in just one day.

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In a last-minute decision, he approached Corning and demanded chemically reinforced glass be used. This was a tough project with a tight deadline, as the iPhone was set to be shipped in June. Within six months, Corning produced the toughened glass, replacing the plastic screen. It also made the iPhone the first smartphone to feature Gorilla Glass.

You can watch the press conference below:

3. The first iPhone call was a Starbucks prank

During the Macworld 2007 keynote, Steve Jobs made the first public call to Starbucks, ordering 4,000 lattes as a joke. In the middle of the presentation, Jobs announced that the iPhone would have Google Maps. Although amusing now, Apple didn't have a functional map feature at the time.

To demonstrate the feature, he looked for Starbucks shops nearby in the Google Maps app. He selected a Starbucks, retrieved their information, placed a call, and ordered 4000 lattes.

While the prank was harmless, it symbolized how the iPhone would integrate phone calls with internet capabilities. The incident also showcased Jobs' playful side and remains one of the quirkiest moments in Apple's history.
Here, you can witness the moment:

4. iPhone survived a 16,000-foot drop

In a jaw-dropping incident, an iPhone endured a 16,000-foot fall from an Alaska Airlines plane and still worked! During a flight, a door plug malfunction caused a passenger's iPhone to get sucked out of the plane. Despite plummeting from such a staggering height, the device was later found intact and fully functional on the ground.

This incredible event highlights the iPhone's durability and left fans in awe of its resilience. While not a feature Apple advertises, it certainly adds to the iPhone's legendary status! If you want to know more about the incident, read the coverage at CBS News.

5. The first iPhone presentation almost crashed

During the 2007 unveiling, the iPhone OS was still in development and not fully functional. Apple engineers devised a "golden path" to keep the demo functional, while Jobs executed the presentation flawlessly. In the middle of the presentation, the clicker to change slides stopped working. However, Jobs covered it with his witty humor.

Moreover, the keynote concentrated on only the essential functions that were stable at the time. Moreover, many demos were pre-recorded. And the team, including Jobs, meticulously rehearsed the presentation to perfection.

You can read the behind-the-scenes stories of the original iPhone introduction from the former Apple engineer on a MacRumors blog.

6. The first idea for the iPhone was born in 1983

A renowned designer Hartmut Esslinger created a phone prototype in 1983 that featured a rotary dial like landline and touchscreen interface. The design included apps, a touch keyboard, and a stylus for navigation. Although it never saw the light of day, the concept laid the groundwork for the Apple phone.

On the contrary, it's believed the idea of an Apple phone came from Jean-Marie Hullot. He was a software engineer who worked at NeXT and, later, Apple. Initially, Jobs didn't favor making an Apple phone, but eventually, Hullot was able to convince him. Finally, the first iPhone development started in 2005.

7. Apple service document has unusual restrictions

Apple's Global Trade Compliance agreement states that its devices cannot be used to create nuclear weapons, biological weapons, missiles, and technology in a few countries. They must obtain proper authorization from the U.S. Government to do so.

While this might sound bizarre, it's a reminder of how Apple ensures its products are used ethically, even including such unlikely scenarios in their documentation.

Want to know which countries are whitelisted? Go through Apple Trade Compliance.

8. The iPhone that lasted only two months

The first iPhone, released in June 2007, had two variants: 4GB and 8GB. However, the 4GB one was discontinued by September of the same year. Apple replaced it with an 8GB version as users demanded more storage. Therefore, the 4GB variant remains a collector's item!

9. 200 patents were filed for the first iPhone

Apple secured over 200 patents during the development of the first iPhone. These included innovations like multi-touch gestures, the sleek rectangular shape, and even the curved corners of the device.

10. Apple refused to unlock a terrorist's iPhone

In 2016, the FBI requested Apple unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple refused, citing user privacy and security concerns. The case sparked a global debate on privacy versus security, solidifying Apple's reputation as a company deeply committed to safeguarding customer data.

Later, Tim Cook wrote an open letter to the customers about the incident and Apple's standpoint. Here, you can read the Customer Letter by Tim Cook.
Signing off...
From pranks to patents and survival stories, the iPhone's journey is filled with intriguing moments. These interesting facts not only highlight the ingenuity behind iPhones but also reflect Apple's vision, resilience, and principles as a company.

What's your favorite iPhone story? Let us know in the comments below!
Also read:

Articles: 295

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10 Fun and interesting facts about the iPhone

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Learn about the fun iPhone facts, from its interesting history to surprising incidents like surviving a 16,000-foot fall and a Starbucks prank call.

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How much each IPhone cost to buy throughout the years

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How much each IPhone cost to buy throughout the years

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-Wyatt

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When the first iPhone was released, 11 years ago, the starting price was $499. At the time, the price was mocked by Apple's competitors as being unrealistically high. Apple did pull the price back for devices on AT&T contracts for the next couple phones, while the iPhone was still exclusively on the US network, but you could still buy one outright for $499 t0 $599. That's about half of what a new iPhone costs now.

Apple's most recent phones are its most expensive ever, starting at $1,000, before you add in sales tax, protection coverage, and anything else you might need to use your new phone.

While the original phones may have seemed comically expensive to people at the time, we all know what happened. The iPhone turned Apple from a successful computer company to the most valuable business in the world, with the phones accounting for somewhere between half and two-thirds of Apple's revenue in any given quarter for the next decade.

Recently, iPhones have dramatically increased in price, with the average cost of a phone the company sells now sitting at around $800, up from $650 just a couple years ago. Even after adjusting for inflation, no iPhone comes close to being as cheap in price as the 2007 original.

Of course, a new iPhone offers quite a bit more than its decade-old one sibling. The original iPhone came with a 2-megapixel camera (which couldn't record video), 4 GB of storage, and a 3.5-inch display. The new iPhone Xs has two cameras (12 megapixels each), 54 GB of storage, and a 5.8-inch HD display.

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The iPhone violates all the rules about the price of technology dropping over time

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When the first iPhone was released, 11 years ago, the starting price was $499. At the time, the price was mocked by Apple's competitors as being unrealistically high. Apple did pull the price back for devices on AT&T contracts for the next couple phones, while the iPhone was still exclusively on the US network, but you could still buy one outright for $499 t0 $599.

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-Aubryn

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The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max start at $999 and $1,099, and go up to $1,349 and $1,449, respectively. They're anything but cheap, although there are plenty of ways to make those prices more tolerable. But how much does it cost Apple to manufacture them? The first bill of materials for the 256GB iPhone XS Max, priced at $1,249, says it cost Apple just $443 to manufacture this model.

The figure comes from TechInsights' teardown, and it's less than $50 more than the estimate for last year's 64GB iPhone X, which TechInsights believes cost Apple $395.44 to make. However, as any bill of materials for iPhones and other handsets, these are estimates that will never be confirmed by smartphone vendors.

The most expensive iPhone XS Max component is the display, the teardown explains, which cost $80.50, compared to $77.27 for last year's iPhone X. Apple paid just over $3 more for the Samsung 6.5-inch display that goes into the XS Max than the 5.8-inch Samsung OLED screen inside the 2017 iPhone X.

To pull it off, Apple removed certain 3D Touch parts in the display, TechInsights says. "All told, what they took out adds up to about $10, so this $80 estimate would have been about $90," TechInsights' Al Cowsky told Reuters. "They had a trade-off in cost."

The phone's processor and modem were also more expensive. Flash memory was also more costly, but that's only logical, considering that TechInsights compared phones that have 256GB and 64GB of memory.

It cost Apple less than $20 to upgrade the memory from 64GB to 256GB. Buyers will pay $150 to make the same jump on either iPhone XS or XS Max. The 512GB tier costs $200 more than 256GB on either model.

A Bloomberg article earlier this week said that Apple's most lucrative new iPhone feature is the flash upgrade. Bloomberg said the 512GB storage option could make the company $134 more per phone than the 256GB:

Storage costs Apple about 25¢ per gigabyte, while the company charges customers roughly 78¢. By doubling the maximum available amount, it's digging deeper into this earnings gold mine. Apple charges an extra $350 to jump from the 64GB minimum to the new 512GB option. Data compiled by Bloomberg show that, excluding assembly and related software work, the largest storage option could make the company about $134 more per phone than the storage tier below, up from $107 in last year's models. The 512GB option could make Apple $241 more per phone than the 64GB model.

But that's hardly a surprise. Apple has been turning storage into a money maker from the first days of the iPhone. Others are doing the same thing, although Apple's prices are higher. From the same Bloomberg estimate:

Samsung Electronics Co. charges 65¢ a gig to move from the 128GB Note 9 phone to the 512GB model.

Even so, the iPhone XS Max is already a massive success for Apple according to a recent sales estimate, with the 256GB version being the most popular of the three options. The 512GB model is the most likely to sell out, the same report showed, as Samsung is Apple's sole supplier of 512GB flash modules.

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Making the $1,249 iPhone XS only costs Apple $443

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The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max start at $999 and $1,099, and go up to $1,349 and $1,449, respectively. They're anything but cheap, although there are plenty of ways to make those prices more tolerable. But how much does it cost Apple to manufacture them?

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-Peri

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17 incredible facts you probably didn't know about Apple

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Here are 17 things you probably didn't know about Apple, from its clothing line to Bill Gates to its serious financial trouble.

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-Macee

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Apple iPhone product line comparison | Comparison tables - SocialCompare

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Compare Apple iPhone XR, iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max vs iPhone X vs Apple iPhone 8 Plus and Apple iPhone 8, Apple iPhone 7, Apple iPhone SE vs iPhone 6S Plus vs Apple iPhone5S vs iPhone5C vs iPhone5 vs iPhone4S vs iPhone4 vs iPhone3GS vs iPhone3G

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-Peri

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Read CNN's Fast Facts about Apple, Inc. and learn more about the maker of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

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Apple Sales are plummeting; XS and XR production cuts are planned
-Macee

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Apple Sales are plummeting; XS and XR production cuts are planned
-Macee

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Ahead of last week's bombshell that Apple would miss its upper Q1 revenue target by $9bn, the company had already asked suppliers to cut Q2 new iPhone production by about 10 percent, according to a report from Nikkei.

Apple in late December asked suppliers to make fewer iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR models for the January to March quarter, Apple's Q2 2019 fiscal quarter, according to Nikkei sources.

Apple last week shocked many when it revealed it would miss its first quarter revenue target of between $89bn to $93bn with expected revenues of $84bn. Last year it reported $88.29bn in revenues and iPhone sales of 77.3 million. Apple cited slower than expected sales in China and fewer upgrades in some developed markets.

Nikkei reports that Apple's total planned production for Q2 of all iPhones, including iPhone 8 and earlier, will be between 40 million to 43 million units, down from an earlier projection of 47 million to 48 million units.

Apple's Q1 2019 financial report will be the first time it excludes unit sales of the iPhone. If the report is correct, it would mean Apple is preparing for a 20 percent decline on Q2 2018 sales of 52.21 million units.

A research group within China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that smartphone shipments dropped 15.5 percent to about 390 million units in 2018, according to Reuters.

Research firm Canalys estimates shipments fell 12 percent in China last year, and could shrink a further three percent in 2019. The firm noted that China is now a mature smartphone market and that phone upgrades will slowdown.

With device sales slowing, Apple is aiming to build up its services business, which hit a record $10bn in Q4. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple would be announcing "new services" this year when asked about how Apple plans to make services a bigger part of its total revenue.

Cook last week revealed Q1 services revenue reached $10.8bn in Q1 and that the company is on track to double services revenue from 2016 to 2020.

A big part of its new services business could be the long-rumored Apple TV service, on which it's reportedly spending $1bn to lure Hollywood talent and produce original content. ZDNet sister site CNET has a run-down of all the programs Apple has lined up for the TV service.

Previous and related coverage
Tim Cook to Apple employees: iPhone activations in US, Canada set new record
Apple CEO Tim Cook sends employees a memo highlighting the bright spots in an otherwise gloomy quarter.

iPhone deals ahead? Bad news for Apple is good news for Apple buyers

Apple has issued its first profit warning since 2002, and the first since the company entered into the smartphone era. But a situation that might be gloomy for investors will be good news for those who want to buy Apple products.

Apple: Beginning of the end, or a new beginning?

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

After iPhone: How long can Apple wait for the next big thing?

Apple has always been about more than the iPhone, but stepping beyond it is a massive challenge.

Apple's Q1 revenue miss: Here are the 5 takeaways you need to know

Apple doesn't do small. A lengthy first quarter preannouncement gave Apple fans and critics a lot of fodder to consider.

Slow iPhone sales? iPhone XR is our best-selling model, says Apple

Maybe $1,000 is too much? Apple says its cheaper iPhone XR has been the best-selling iPhone since its launch.

Apple to iPhone owners: Up to $100 more for your old phone if you buy XS, XR

No discounts on the iPhone XS, but Apple will give you more for an old iPhone.

Apple restarting iPhone X production, cutting XS price over slow sales?

Apple is said to be ready to offer subsidies to operators to discount the iPhone XR in Japan.

Trump: iPhone buyers could 'very easily' stand paying 10% more with China tariff

Ahead of this week's G20 meeting, Trump talks up tariffs on Chinese-made iPhones and MacBooks.

Demand for new iPhones weaker than Apple expected, claims report TechRepublic

It seems that Apple is having a hard time forecasting what the demand for new iPhones will be, and is being forced to slash production orders as a result.

Apple's rare sales warning sparks iPhone fatigue fears CNET

The company blames a deceleration in demand in China, but investors imagine the worst.

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Apple's iPhone sales slump: Deeper XS, XR production cuts planned? | ZDNet

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Ahead of last week's bombshell that Apple would miss its upper Q1 revenue target by $9bn, the company had already asked suppliers to cut Q2 new iPhone production by about 10 percent, according to a report from Nikkei.

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History and Facts of how the Samsung started and where it is now.

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History and Facts of how the Samsung started and where it is now.

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Table of Contents

Samsung, South Korean company that is one of the world's largest producers of electronic devices. Samsung specializes in the production of a wide variety of consumer and industry electronics, including appliances, digital media devices, semiconductors, memory chips, and integrated systems. It has become one of the most-recognizable names in technology and produces about a fifth of South Korea's total exports.

Early years

Samsung was founded as a grocery trading store on March 1, 1938, by Lee Byung-Chull. He started his business in Taegu, Korea, trading noodles and other goods produced in and around the city and exporting them to China and its provinces. (The company name, Samsung, came from the Korean for "three stars.") After the Korean War, Lee expanded his business into textiles and opened the largest woolen mill in Korea. He focused heavily on industrialization with the goal of helping his country redevelop itself after the war. During that period his business benefited from the new protectionist policies adopted by the Korean government, whose aim was to help large domestic conglomerates () by shielding them from competition and providing them easy financing. In the late 1950s the company acquired three of Korea's largest commercial banks as well as an insurance company and firms that made cement and fertilizer. Samsung in the 1960s acquired more insurance companies as well as an oil refinery, a nylon company, and a department store.

During the 1970s the company expanded its textile-manufacturing processes to cover the full line of production-from raw materials all the way to the end product-to better compete in the textile industry. New subsidiaries such as Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Shipbuilding, and Samsung Precision Company (Samsung Techwin) were established. Also, during the same period, the company started to invest in the heavy, chemical, and petrochemical industries, providing the company a promising growth path.

Electronics

Samsung first entered the electronics industry in 1969 with several electronics-focused divisions. Their first products were black-and-white televisions. During the 1970s the company began to export home electronics products overseas. At that time Samsung was already a major manufacturer in Korea, and it had acquired a 50 percent stake in Korea Semiconductor.

The late 1970s and early '80s witnessed the rapid expansion of Samsung's technology businesses. Separate semiconductor and electronics branches were established, and in 1978 an aerospace division was created. Samsung Data Systems (now Samsung SDS) was established in 1985 to serve businesses' growing need for systems development. That helped Samsung quickly become a leader in information technology services. Samsung also created two research and development institutes that broadened the company's technology line into electronics, semiconductors, high-polymer chemicals, genetic engineering tools, telecommunications, aerospace, and nanotechnology.

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Samsung, South Korean company that is one of the world's largest producers of electronic devices. Samsung specializes in the production of a wide variety of consumer and industry electronics, including appliances, digital media devices, semiconductors, memory chips, and integrated systems. It has become one of the most-recognizable names in technology and produces about a fifth of South Korea's total exports.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-samsung-elec-payout/samsung-electronics-mobile-head-paycheck-hits-5-8-million-beating-apples-cook-idUSBREA2U0BT20140331

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Everything that the iPhone 6s is made of:) -Spencer Scheetz

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The Extraordinary Raw Materials in an iPhone 6s

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Over 700 million iPhones have now been sold, but the iPhone would not exist if it were not for the raw materials that make the technology possible.

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Most of the natural elements in phones come from Africa. This isn't just cobalt.  This also includes manganese, arsenic, and boron.  - Candis 

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Most of the natural elements in phones come from Africa. This isn't just cobalt.  This also includes manganese, arsenic, and boron.  - Candis 

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Minerals in your mobile phone

Thursday June 4 2015

Advertisement

By ALLAN OLINGO, The EastAfrican

The raw materials used in the manufacture of mobile phones come from a variety of minerals. These and the parts of a mobile phone they are used to make are listed below.

The mobile phone screen is made up of indium and tin, which are mainly found in China. The liquid crystal display (LCD) screen is made of aluminosilicate glass, a mixture of aluminium and silicon.

China is the world's biggest producer of tin and is also a major importer of the metal used primarily in solder for electronics. In 2014, China exported 3,000 tonnes with the average tin prize being $23,150 a tonne. Industry experts note that at the end of 2015, the prizes will climb to $27,000, which will see China rake in $81 million.

Lithium, colt and manganese are used to make phone batteries. The majority of today's phones use lithium ion batteries. In 2013, global lithium consumption doubled driven largely by its use in lithium-ion batteries for cell phones and power tools.

The world's supply of lithium comes from Australia, Chile, China, Tibet and Argentina. According to the US Geological Survey, Australia in 2014 produced 13,000 tonnes of lithium followed by Chile at 12,900. In Africa, it's only Zimbabwe which managed to produce 1,000 tonnes at the privately owned Bikita Minerals raking in $7 million.

A wide range of elements and compounds are used in the electronics of a phone. The processor of the phone is made from pure silicon, which is bombarded with elements such as phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, boron, indium or gallium.

The micro-electrical components and wiring in the phone are composed mainly of copper, gold, and silver. Congo and Zambia are some of the main exporting countries. In 2013, Congo's copper output rose to 900,000 tonnes.

The electrical unit also consists of micro-capacitors which use tantalum, platinum and palladium. tantalum and niobium are extracted from Coltan ores. DRC is the world's largest producer of Coltan. Rwanda and Uganda also contribute significantly to Coltan exports in the world. In 2013, Rwanda was the world's single largest exporter of coltan, exporting 2.4 million tonnes. This earned it $134.5 million.

Palladium and platinum are other minerals used in the electrical circuits of phones. South Africa and Zimbabwe are some of the countries that export these minerals. The platinum price in 2014 averaged $1840 per ounce last year with Europe and China being the main markets for this mineral.

Amplifier, vibrators, receiver

The microphone and speaker of the phone both contain magnets, which are usually made from arsenic and gallium. South Africa is one of the world's largest exporters of arsenic minerals.

Gallium is a by-product of mining and processing of aluminium, zinc and copper. China produces 80 per cent of the world's used gallium with Japan being the biggest consumer mainly because of its production of electronics. Gallium has mainly been used in amplifiers for mobile phones integrated circuits and also in LEDs for backlighting of computers, phones and televisions.

Tungsten also finds use as weights for the vibrating motors within the phone. China, Russia, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda are some of the countries that produce these rare mineral. East Africa produced a combined 710 tonnes of this mineral in 2014.

Minerals such as neodymium are used in magnets, which make speakers vibrate. China produces more than 90 per cent of the world's supply of rare-earth minerals and neodymium is one of them.

Casing
Most phone casings are either made of metals or plastic with the latter mainly relying on carbon-based units to make the plastic covers. Magnesium compounds are one of the minerals in the phone case. Magnesium is mined in China, Brazil, India and the United States, with China dominating its consumption.

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Minerals in your mobile phone

Thursday June 4 2015

Advertisement

By ALLAN OLINGO, The EastAfrican

The raw materials used in the manufacture of mobile phones come from a variety of minerals. These and the parts of a mobile phone they are used to make are listed below.

The mobile phone screen is made up of indium and tin, which are mainly found in China. The liquid crystal display (LCD) screen is made of aluminosilicate glass, a mixture of aluminium and silicon.

China is the world's biggest producer of tin and is also a major importer of the metal used primarily in solder for electronics. In 2014, China exported 3,000 tonnes with the average tin prize being $23,150 a tonne. Industry experts note that at the end of 2015, the prizes will climb to $27,000, which will see China rake in $81 million.

Lithium, colt and manganese are used to make phone batteries. The majority of today's phones use lithium ion batteries. In 2013, global lithium consumption doubled driven largely by its use in lithium-ion batteries for cell phones and power tools.

The world's supply of lithium comes from Australia, Chile, China, Tibet and Argentina. According to the US Geological Survey, Australia in 2014 produced 13,000 tonnes of lithium followed by Chile at 12,900. In Africa, it's only Zimbabwe which managed to produce 1,000 tonnes at the privately owned Bikita Minerals raking in $7 million.

A wide range of elements and compounds are used in the electronics of a phone. The processor of the phone is made from pure silicon, which is bombarded with elements such as phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, boron, indium or gallium.

The micro-electrical components and wiring in the phone are composed mainly of copper, gold, and silver. Congo and Zambia are some of the main exporting countries. In 2013, Congo's copper output rose to 900,000 tonnes.

The electrical unit also consists of micro-capacitors which use tantalum, platinum and palladium. tantalum and niobium are extracted from Coltan ores. DRC is the world's largest producer of Coltan. Rwanda and Uganda also contribute significantly to Coltan exports in the world. In 2013, Rwanda was the world's single largest exporter of coltan, exporting 2.4 million tonnes. This earned it $134.5 million.

Palladium and platinum are other minerals used in the electrical circuits of phones. South Africa and Zimbabwe are some of the countries that export these minerals. The platinum price in 2014 averaged $1840 per ounce last year with Europe and China being the main markets for this mineral.

Amplifier, vibrators, receiver

The microphone and speaker of the phone both contain magnets, which are usually made from arsenic and gallium. South Africa is one of the world's largest exporters of arsenic minerals.

Gallium is a by-product of mining and processing of aluminium, zinc and copper. China produces 80 per cent of the world's used gallium with Japan being the biggest consumer mainly because of its production of electronics. Gallium has mainly been used in amplifiers for mobile phones integrated circuits and also in LEDs for backlighting of computers, phones and televisions.

Tungsten also finds use as weights for the vibrating motors within the phone. China, Russia, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda are some of the countries that produce these rare mineral. East Africa produced a combined 710 tonnes of this mineral in 2014.

Minerals such as neodymium are used in magnets, which make speakers vibrate. China produces more than 90 per cent of the world's supply of rare-earth minerals and neodymium is one of them.

Casing
Most phone casings are either made of metals or plastic with the latter mainly relying on carbon-based units to make the plastic covers. Magnesium compounds are one of the minerals in the phone case. Magnesium is mined in China, Brazil, India and the United States, with China dominating its consumption.

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By ALLAN OLINGO, The EastAfrican

The raw materials used in the manufacture of mobile phones come from a variety of minerals. These and the parts of a mobile phone they are used to make are listed below.

The mobile phone screen is made up of indium and tin, which are mainly found in China. The liquid crystal display (LCD) screen is made of aluminosilicate glass, a mixture of aluminium and silicon.

China is the world's biggest producer of tin and is also a major importer of the metal used primarily in solder for electronics. In 2014, China exported 3,000 tonnes with the average tin prize being $23,150 a tonne. Industry experts note that at the end of 2015, the prizes will climb to $27,000, which will see China rake in $81 million.

Lithium, colt and manganese are used to make phone batteries. The majority of today's phones use lithium ion batteries. In 2013, global lithium consumption doubled driven largely by its use in lithium-ion batteries for cell phones and power tools.

The world's supply of lithium comes from Australia, Chile, China, Tibet and Argentina. According to the US Geological Survey, Australia in 2014 produced 13,000 tonnes of lithium followed by Chile at 12,900. In Africa, it's only Zimbabwe which managed to produce 1,000 tonnes at the privately owned Bikita Minerals raking in $7 million.

A wide range of elements and compounds are used in the electronics of a phone. The processor of the phone is made from pure silicon, which is bombarded with elements such as phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, boron, indium or gallium.

The micro-electrical components and wiring in the phone are composed mainly of copper, gold, and silver. Congo and Zambia are some of the main exporting countries. In 2013, Congo's copper output rose to 900,000 tonnes.

The electrical unit also consists of micro-capacitors which use tantalum, platinum and palladium. tantalum and niobium are extracted from Coltan ores. DRC is the world's largest producer of Coltan. Rwanda and Uganda also contribute significantly to Coltan exports in the world. In 2013, Rwanda was the world's single largest exporter of coltan, exporting 2.4 million tonnes. This earned it $134.5 million.

Palladium and platinum are other minerals used in the electrical circuits of phones. South Africa and Zimbabwe are some of the countries that export these minerals. The platinum price in 2014 averaged $1840 per ounce last year with Europe and China being the main markets for this mineral.

Amplifier, vibrators, receiver

The microphone and speaker of the phone both contain magnets, which are usually made from arsenic and gallium. South Africa is one of the world's largest exporters of arsenic minerals.

Gallium is a by-product of mining and processing of aluminium, zinc and copper. China produces 80 per cent of the world's used gallium with Japan being the biggest consumer mainly because of its production of electronics. Gallium has mainly been used in amplifiers for mobile phones integrated circuits and also in LEDs for backlighting of computers, phones and televisions.

Tungsten also finds use as weights for the vibrating motors within the phone. China, Russia, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda are some of the countries that produce these rare mineral. East Africa produced a combined 710 tonnes of this mineral in 2014.

Minerals such as neodymium are used in magnets, which make speakers vibrate. China produces more than 90 per cent of the world's supply of rare-earth minerals and neodymium is one of them.

Casing
Most phone casings are either made of metals or plastic with the latter mainly relying on carbon-based units to make the plastic covers. Magnesium compounds are one of the minerals in the phone case. Magnesium is mined in China, Brazil, India and the United States, with China dominating its consumption.

Related Stories

Sat May 30 12:23:10 EAT 2015

Minerals make up over 52 per cent of Tanzania's exports, earning over $3.3 billion last year.

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Police say assailants fled to Burundi through the thick Nyungwe Forest

Prime Minister accuses former Labour party leader of insulting voters and trying to undermine

Police say assailants fled to Burundi through the thick Nyungwe Forest

Prime Minister accuses former Labour party leader of insulting voters and trying to undermine

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Thursday June 4 2015 Advertisement By ALLAN OLINGO, The EastAfrican The raw materials used in the manufacture of mobile phones come from a variety of minerals. These and the parts of a mobile phone they are used to make are listed below.

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https://qz.com/35079/samsung-now-worth-200-billion-but-market-cap-gap-with-apple-persists/

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Things wrong with the production of the phone.

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Things wrong with the production of the phone.

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Justin

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's Pixel 2 XL is the best smartphone I have used this year, or at least it should be. Its camera is head and shoulders above the competition, its battery life is stunning and it has easily the best real world Android performance I've ever experienced. But for now both my review and recommendation of the Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 2 remain on hold until Google clears up some serious problems...

Much has been written about the Pixel 2 XL's display and with good reason. I've had the phone for nearly two weeks now and it simply isn't good enough - not for a phone starting at $849. But that's far from the only issue, so let's break everything down:
Dull, Inaccurate Colors
Google first promoted then defended the Pixel 2 XL display by claiming it is mapped to the sRGB color spectrum to maximise its color accuracy. It's a strange boast because a) sRGB is a much narrower spectrum than the P3 wide color gamut the display supports and which most rivals use, and b) colors are not accurate.

As the graph shows below, sRGB shies away from the extremes of the color spectrum. The knock-on effect is some colors which appear outside the spectrum are lost. Notably icons look washed out and textures flat, not just compared to reigning champ the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 but even the smaller Pixel 2 which is supposed to have the same sRGB mapping.

A nasty side effect of this is image editing on the Pixel 2 XL is misleading. What looks good on the phone will actually look oversaturated on most other displays and you can ruin then share important photographs before you realise what has happened.

The good news? This can be fixed in software and Google has indicated a willingness to offer a different color profile (an existing 'Vibrant Colors' option makes no tangible difference) and it must.
Solution: software fix October 25th Update: Aninteresting postfrom software developer François Simond suggests the problem may not be down to sRGB, rather poor calibration of the Pixel 2 XL. As he explains: "Erica Griffin measured (using software I made - I can vouch on the precision of her analysis) her Pixel 2 XL displays and saw that they are not correctly calibrated to sRGB.In fact the red primary in her units is lacking in intensity and their hue is too orange/yellow. Only from measurements, you can predict that red will be kind of muted and orange, and that a lot of things will kind of look brown.Including known icons and worse: faces. And humans are extremely sensitive to skin tones. We can tell right away.Also she mentioned that the gamma curve is darker than it should, which will compromise the result further."
Skin tones are the number one problem when using the Pixel 2 XL, so a lot of this adds up. It also hopefully means Google can correct much of up with an update.
Viewing Angles
Where Google's software and AI wizardry won't help, however, is the blue tint which affects the viewing angles of the Pixel 2 XL. You can see this by opening anything with a white background and tilting the phone progressively away from you.

Unfortunately this is a hardware issue that plagues LG's panels (the Pixel two uses AMOLED) and also affects the LG V30. It isn't the end of the world since we primarily view our phones from straight ahead but anyone you're showing photos to at an angle will have a suboptimal experience and this price point ($849 - 64GB, $949 - 128GB), it simply shouldn't be there.
Solution: live with it / buy a different phone Burn In Damage
Google is "actively investigating" that the Pixel 2 XL display is leaving screen 'burn in'. This happens when a particular element of the image on the display remains fixed for long periods of time - the back, home and multitasking buttons here - and a shadow of them remains after they have disappeared (such as when watching a full screen video).

I can confirm my Pixel 2 XL review unit does not suffer from burn-in, at least not yet (it tends to take weeks or months) but the fact it has already impacted devices which are only weeks old raises significant concern.
Solution: recall affected devices
A clarification. It's important to note that for all the Pixel 2 XL's display problems, they do not affect the superlative camera. The photos its takes are rich and vibrant and have no connection to the display. Here's an example...

In fact while testing the Pixel 2 XL, I have been long term reviewing Samsung's Galaxy Note 8. My discovery? Taking photos on the Pixel 2 XL and then viewing them on the Galaxy Note 8 is the ultimate combination, but it's an expensive and implausible one.
Whining and Clicking
It isn't only the Pixel 2 XL which is causing owners problems, however, as owners of both it and the Pixel 2 are taking to Google's official forums to report hearing "clicking" and a "high-pitched whine" from their top and bottom speakers. One affected user made a recording you can .

There are conflicting accounts about what to do about this. Some users say Google support has instructed them to return their devices, others that it can be patched in software. Apparently turning off NFC helps, but I haven't been able to check as again my Pixel 2 XL review sample is unaffected.
Solution: TBC Durability
While I have no complaints about the build quality of either the Pixel 2 or the Pixel 2 XL, question marks about their longer term durability have been raised by popular YouTube stress tester JerryRigEverything.

While praising its extra mile water resistance , the problem is the smaller Pixel 2 has a potential bendgate situation as Google has fitted an antenna band at the weakest part of the phone .

This weakness doesn't affect the Pixel 2 XL, but both phones also are shown to use a plastic coating which can be scratched away to reveal their aluminium chassis underneath. Personally I really like the coating and the grippy texture it gives both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, but how it wears long term remains to be seen.
Solution: Don't put the Pixel 2 in your backpocket (its a pickpocket's nirvana anyway) and consider a case
So what's the takeaway from all these issues?

Firstly none will kill off either the Pixel 2 or the Pixel 2 XL, these are not exploding phones. Secondly some owners will be happy enough with the Pixel 2 XL's display, it's not completely terrible it's just not what you expect on an $849 smartphone and Google needs to do everything it can to improve it - whether that is through software or a mass recall.

And thirdly, Google has shown with just two generations that it has the focus and intelligence to make brilliant iPhone and Galaxy rivalling smartphones in theory. But in practice the company needs to get a grip on what it takes to mass produce them.

Building enough was the challenge Google faced with the original Pixel and Pixel XL, now building them well enough has become the number one challenge for their successors...
More On Forbes Google Pixel 2 Vs Pixel 2 XL: What's The Difference? Google 'Confirms' Pixel 2 Release Date Pixel Vs Pixel XL Review: Google's Ugly, Brilliant Smartphones Google Android 8.0 Oreo: Should You Upgrade? iPhone X Vs iPhone 8 Plus: What's The Difference?

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Five Things Wrong With Google's Pixel 2 Smartphones

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's Pixel 2 XL is the best smartphone I have used this year, or at least it should be. Its camera is head and shoulders above the competition, its battery life is stunning and it has easily the best real world Android performance I've ever experienced.

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How much the CEO of Apple makes annually.

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How much the CEO of Apple makes annually.

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- Aubryn

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Apple CEO Tim Cook pulled in $102 million in total compensation in 2017, considerably better than his pay in 2016, the company said in a regulatory filing this week.

Cook's base salary remained unchanged at $3 million per year, while he saw his cash bonus jump more than 73 percent, to $9.3 million. The company paid out an additional $440,000 in other compensation, with Cook pulling in a total of $12.8 million in cash or equivalents.

Crucially, Cook vested 560,000 shares of Apple stock in late September, which was worth about $89 million at the time. Apple's stock has gained another 10 percent since September, making those freshly vested shares worth about $95 million today.

Cook is sitting on 2.94 million additional unvested shares, which he'll unlock between now and August 2021. If he remains at Apple, Cook will vest up to 560,000 shares per year until 2021, when he unlocks his final stock option award of up to 1.2 million shares.

In total, Cook's 2.94 million unvested shares are worth about half a billion dollars, based on Apple's closing price Wednesday.

As of mid-December, Cook owned a little over 901,000 Apple shares, currently worth about $153.7 million.

This year, the company decided Cook had become so recognizable outside of Silicon Valley that he would be forced to fly on private jets for all business and personal travel going forward.

"This policy was implemented in 2017 in the interests of security and efficiency based on our global profile and the highly visible nature of Mr. Cook's role as CEO," Apple said.

This week's filing included a couple other tidbits about Cook's finances: Apple put $16,200 into Cook's personal 401(k) account, cashed his unused vacation pay out to the tune of $103,846, paid $3,003 for his life insurance premiums and spent $224,216 on Cook's personal security detail.

Additionally, Cook used private jets for some personal travel this past year, costing Apple $93,109.

Apple's five top executives, Luca Maestri, Angela Ahrendts, Johny Srouji, Dan Riccio and Bruce Sewell, each earned base salaries of $1 million per year, stock awards worth $20 million and cash bonuses of $3.1 million, meaning each earned a little over $24 million in compensation.

Each of the company's top five executives vested tens of thousands of shares in 2017. Ahrendts, who leads Apple's retail division, unlocked a little over 212,000 shares alone in 2017, worth about $32.3 million at the time.

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Apple gives CEO Tim Cook 73% bump in bonus pay, now requires him to fly on private jets everywhere - Silicon Valley Business Journal

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Apple CEO Tim Cook pulled in $102 million in total compensation in 2017, considerably better than his pay in 2016, the company said in a regulatory filing this week. Cook's base salary remained unchanged at $3 million per year, while he saw his cash bonus jump more than 73 percent, to $9.3 million.

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Why Apple Products Aren't Made in America

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Why Apple Products Aren't Made in America

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- Samy

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Image

A screw from the late 2013 model of the Mac Pro. Credit Credit James Nieves/The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO - Despite a trade war between the United States and China and past admonishments from President Trump "to start building their damn computers and things in this country," Apple is unlikely to bring its manufacturing closer to home.

A tiny screw illustrates why.

In 2012, Apple's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, went on prime-time television to announce that Apple would make a Mac computer in the United States. It would be the first Apple product in years to be manufactured by American workers, and the top-of-the-line Mac Pro would come with an unusual inscription: "Assembled in USA."

But when Apple began making the $3,000 computer in Austin, Tex., it struggled to find enough screws, according to three people who worked on the project and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements.

In China, Apple relied on factories that can produce vast quantities of custom screws on short notice. In Texas, where they say everything is bigger, it turned out the screw suppliers were not.

[Apple disabled the iPhone's Group FaceTime featur e to fix a bug that made eavesdropping possible.]
Tests of new versions of the computer were hamstrung because a 20-employee machine shop that Apple's manufacturing contractor was relying on could produce at most 1,000 screws a day.

The screw shortage was one of several problems that postponed sales of the computer for months, the people who worked on the project said. By the time the computer was ready for mass production, Apple had ordered screws from China.

The challenges in Texas illustrate problems that Apple would face if it tried to move a significant amount of manufacturing out of China. Apple has found that no country - and certainly not the United States - can match China's combination of scale, skills, infrastructure and cost.

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Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, helped lead the company's shift to foreign manufacturing in 2004. Credit Erica Yoon for The New York Times

[Apple computers were once made in Silicon Valley. It did not go well.]
In China, you will also find one of Apple's most important markets, and over the last month the risks that come with that dependence have become apparent. On Jan. 2, Apple said it would miss earnings expectations for the first time in 16 years, mostly because of slowing iPhone sales in China. On Tuesday, the company is expected to reveal more details about its financial results for the most recent quarter and its forecast for the coming year.

The company could face more financial pressure if the Trump administration places tariffs on phones made in China - something the president has threatened to do.

Apple has intensified a search for ways to diversify its supply chain, but that hunt has homed in on India and Vietnam, according to an Apple executive who asked not to be named because the executive was not authorized to speak publicly. The company's executives are increasingly worried that its heavy dependence on China for manufacturing is risky amid the country's rising political tensions with the United States and unpredictability, this person said.

"The skill here is just incredible," Mr. Cook said at a conference in China in late 2017. Making Apple products requires state-of-the-art machines and lots of people who know how to run them, he said.

"In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I'm not sure we could fill the room," he said. "In China, you could fill multiple football fields."

Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said the company was "an engine of economic growth in the United States" that spent $60 billion last year with 9,000 American suppliers, helping to support 450,000 jobs. Apple's Texas manufacturer, Flextronics, did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Cook helped lead Apple's shift to foreign manufacturing in 2004, a move that cut costs and provided the enormous scale necessary to produce some of history's best-selling tech products.

Apple contracted much of the work to enormous factories in China, some stretching miles and employing hundreds of thousands of people who assemble, test and package Apple products. That assembly includes parts made around the world - from Norway to the Philippines to Pocatello, Idaho - that are shipped to China.

The final assembly is the most labor-intensive part of building the iPhone, and its location often determines a product's country of origin for tariffs. Credit Karly Domb Sadof/Associated Press

The final assembly is the most labor-intensive part of building the iPhone, and its location often determines a product's country of origin for tariffs.

Mr. Cook often bristles at the notion that iPhones are Chinese-made. Apple points out that Corning, at a factory in Kentucky, makes many iPhone screens and that a company in Allen, Tex., makes laser technology for the iPhones' facial-recognition system.

Mr. Cook has also disputed that cheap labor is the reason Apple is still in China. But it doesn't hurt. The minimum wage in Zhengzhou, China, home of the world's biggest iPhone factory, is roughly $2.10 an hour, including benefits. Apple said the starting pay for workers assembling its products there was about $3.15 an hour. Compensation for similar jobs in the United States is significantly higher.

While it was one of Apple's most powerful computers, the American-made Mac Pro also turned out to be one of its most expensive.

Chinese suppliers shipped their components to Texas. But in some cases, the Texas team needed new parts as designs changed, and engineers who were tasked with designing the computer found themselves calling machine shops in central Texas.

That is how they found Stephen Melo, the owner and president of Caldwell Manufacturing in Lockhart. Employees of Flextronics, the company hired by Apple to build the computers, in turn hired Caldwell to make 28,000 screws - though they would have liked more.

When Mr. Melo bought Caldwell in 2002, it was capable of the high-volume production Apple needed. But demand for that had dried up as manufacturing moved to China. He said he had replaced the old stamping presses that could mass-produce screws with machines designed for more precise, specialized jobs.

Mr. Melo thought it was ironic that Apple, a leader in offshore manufacturing, had come calling with a big order. "It's hard to invest for that in the U.S. because that stuff is purchased very cheaply overseas," he said.

Workers heading to a Foxconn factory dedicated to iPhones in Zhengzhou, China, in 2015. Such factories can employ hundreds of thousands of people who assemble, test and package Apple products. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

He made do with his new machines, although he could not make the exact screws Apple wanted. His company delivered 28,000 screws over 22 trips. Mr. Melo often made the one-hour drive himself in his Lexus sedan.

A former Apple manager who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Flextronics team had also been far smaller than what he typically found on similar Apple projects in China. It was unclear exactly why the project was understaffed, the manager said, speculating that it was because American workers were more expensive.

The manager said similar Apple jobs in China would include a roomful of people working to ensure that all materials were in place for production. In Texas, it was one worker, who often seemed overwhelmed, the manager said. As a result, materials were regularly out of place or late, contributing to delays.

Another frustration with manufacturing in Texas: American workers won't work around the clock. Chinese factories have shifts working at all hours, if necessary, and workers are sometimes even roused from their sleep to meet production goals. That was not an option in Texas.

"China is not just cheap. It's a place where, because it's an authoritarian government, you can marshal 100,000 people to work all night for you," said Susan Helper, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the former chief economist at the Commerce Department. "That has become an essential part of the product-rollout strategy."

Ms. Helper said Apple could make more products in the United States if it invested significant time and money and relied more on robotics and specialized engineers instead of large numbers of low-wage line workers. She said government and industry would also need to improve job training and promote the development of a supply-chain infrastructure.

But, she added, there is a low chance of all that happening.

Apple still assembles Mac Pros at the factory on the outskirts of Austin, in part because it has already invested in complicated and custom machines. But the Mac Pro has been a slow seller, and Apple has not updated it since its introduction in 2013.

In December, Apple announced that it would add up to 15,000 workers in Austin, just miles from the Mac Pro plant. None of the new jobs are expected to be in manufacturing.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Why Not Assemble iPhones in America? Consider This Screw. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won't Be 'Assembled in U.S.A.'

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SAN FRANCISCO - Despite a trade war between the United States and China and past admonishments from President Trump "to start building their damn computers and things in this country," Apple is unlikely to bring its manufacturing closer to home. A tiny screw illustrates why. In 2012, Apple's chief executive, Timothy D.

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- Samy

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Anyone who has bought an iPhone or another Apple product has seen the note on the company's packaging that its products are designed in California, but that doesn't mean they're manufactured there. Answering the question of where the iPhone is made isn't simple.

Assembled vs. Manufactured

When trying to understand where Apple manufactures its devices, there are two key concepts that sound similar but are different: assembling and manufacturing.

Manufacturing is the process of making the components that go into the iPhone. While Apple designs and sells the iPhone, it doesn't manufacture its components. Instead, Apple uses manufacturers from around the world to deliver individual parts. The manufacturers specialize in particular items-camera specialists manufacture the lens and camera assembly, screen specialists build the display, and so on.

Assembling, on the other hand, is the process of taking all the individual components built by specialist manufacturers and combining them into a finished, working iPhone.

The iPhone's Component Manufacturers

Because there are hundreds of individual components in every iPhone, it's not possible to list every manufacturer whose products are found on the phone. It's also difficult to discern exactly where those components are made because sometimes one company builds the same component at multiple factories.

Some of the suppliers of key or interesting parts for the iPhone 5S, 6, and 6S and where they operate, included:

Accelerometer: Bosch Sensortech, based in Germany with locations in the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan

Audio chips: Cirrus Logic, based in the U.S. with locations in the U.K., China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore

Battery: Samsung, based in South Korea with locations in 80 countries

Battery: Sunwoda Electronic, based in China

Camera: Qualcomm, based in the U.S. with locations in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and more than a dozen locations through Europe and Latin America

Camera: Sony, based in Japan with locations in dozens of countries

Chips for cellular networking: Qualcomm

Compass: AKM Semiconductor, based in Japan with locations in the U.S., France, England, China, South Korea, and Taiwan

Glass screen: Corning, based in the U.S., with locations in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Turkey, the U.K., and the United Arab Emirates

Gyroscope: STMicroelectronics. Based in Switzerland, with locations in 35 countries

Flash memory: Toshiba, based in Japan with locations in over 50 countries

Flash memory: Samsung

LCD screen: Sharp, based in Japan with locations in 13 countries

LCD screen: LG, based in South Korea with locations in Poland and China

A-series processor: Samsung

A-series processor: TSMC, based in Taiwan with locations in China, Singapore, and the U.S.

Touch ID: TSMC

Touch ID: Xintec. Based in Taiwan.

Touch-screen controller: Broadcom, based in the U.S. with locations in Israel, Greece, the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, France, India, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea

Wi-Fi chip: Murata, based in the U.S. with locations in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Vietnam, The Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, and Finland

The iPhone's Assemblers

The components manufactured by those companies all around the world are ultimately sent to just two companies to assemble into iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Those companies are Foxconn and Pegatron, both of which are based in Taiwan.

Technically, Foxconn is the company's trade name; the firm's official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. Foxconn is Apple's longest-running partner in building these devices. It currently assembles the majority of Apple's iPhones in its Shenzen, China, location, although Foxconn maintains factories in countries across the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Thanks for letting us know!

Other Not enough details Hard to understand

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Where Is the iPhone Made? (It's Not Just One Country!)

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Curious about where the iPhone is made? With such complex devices, there's no simple answer, but the details are here.

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Steve Jobs left the company in 1985 after Lisa , first personal computer, fails.  Returns to company in 1997. -Candis 

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Steve Jobs left the company in 1985 after Lisa , first personal computer, fails.  Returns to company in 1997. -Candis 

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Read CNN's Fast Facts about Apple, Inc. and learn more about the maker of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

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Brenna
How it was created
One of the facts state that the creators of the iPhone were trying to design a tablet. Midway through the process, they got the idea to apply the tablet technology to a phone, leading to the birth of the iPhone.

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Even though the iPad came out a few years after the iPhone, Apple was actually exploring a tablet device before the idea for an iPhone even began to take shape. As relayed by Steve Jobs himself during a 2010 All Things D interview, Jobs explained how he wanted Apple engineers to research various tablet designs with a virtual keyboard. When they came back to him with a device featuring multitouch functionality, Jobs thought that Apple could apply that technology to a phone. As Jobs told Walt Mossberg, Apple "put the tablet aside and we went to work on the phone."

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14 fascinating facts about Apple's iPhone

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Even though the iPad came out a few years after the iPhone, Apple was actually exploring a tablet device before the idea for an iPhone even began to take shape. As relayed by Steve Jobs himself during a 2010 All Things D interview, Jobs explained how he wanted Apple engineers to research various tablet designs with a virtual keyboard.

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Apple has lowered its revenue guidance from $93 billion $84 billion ahead of its earnings call scheduled for January 29th. With a drop of $9 billion, poor iPhone sales have cut Apple's revenue projections.

As I reported in the last weeks of 2018, sales of the new iPhones have not met expectations. Following the reduction in orders of materials in the supply chain and the reduced number of production lines, Apple has confirmed in a letter to investors that the new iPhone range is not delivering. CNBC reports:

"If you look at our results, our shortfall is over 100 percent from iPhone and it's primarily in greater China," Cook told CNBC's Josh Lipton in an interview Wednesday. "It's clear that the economy began to slow there in the second half and I believe the trade tensions between the United States and China put additional pressure on their economy."

Before the letter to investors was announced, analysts at Citi Research had cut their estimates for Q1 2019 for a second time, dropping it to 45 million handsets in the first quarter. It also notes that Apple's actions indicate that it is entering the destocking phase of the 2018 iPhone family. Sonam Rai for Reuters:

"The material cut in our forecasts is driven by our view that 2018 iPhone is entering a destocking phase, which does not bode well for the supply chain," analyst William Yang wrote in a client note.

Meanwhile, Apple continues to push its high-end high-cost model, with a new push on the iPhone XS Max in India. Foxconn will be producing handsets in India for local sales - a first for the iPhone. This can be seen as a courageous decision, because not only is Apple's market share in India is already falling, whatever strength the iPhone has in the Indian market is in lower cost models such as the iPhone 6S and the iPhone SE.

Tim Cook's decision to push the price of the iPhone higher has allowed Apple to increase margins and build up a record-breaking financial position for the company, but it has not seen a noticeable increase in annual handset years since the launch of the iPhone 6 Plus. That flat sales line is looking to be on a downward trajectory - just as Cook informs his stockholders that Apple will no longer be reporting unit sales and will be focusing on software and ancillary services revenue to maintain income.

But how can you increase the ancillary sales if the front-line product is no longer selling?

This is where Apple needs to sit down and decide if it wants to become a boutique high-end luxury smartphone maker, or if it wants to be a significant volume player in the industry. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the former. Look at any market and you will find there are successful companies working at high price points with good margins, a loyal fan base, and a thriving business. But do these companies have significant market share?

Tim Cook cannot have it both ways. If he wants Apple to be a luxury, then it needs to be satisfied with smaller sales, smaller market shares, and stop trying to reach a mass market audience. If he wants to be seen as a premium brand that balances out a higher than average price but still delivers towards a wide consumer base, then the iPhone needs an affordable modern product that can reach the mass market.

I don't mean relying on the two-year-old iPhone 7 at a lower price point - selling a third-generation hand-me-down requires a rabid fanbase that can be satisfied with 36-month old hardware as a status symbol. What you need is a modern current generation handset that carries the same values as the parent company but works towards a price point that will allow more people to buy a new handset, that will fight against the feel of Android handsets that are more than good enough, and perhaps then you can grow the market share to the point that ancillary services makes financial sense.

In other words, you need something like the iPhone SE for 2019.

The SE debuted six months after the launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. At that point it was clear that the iPhone 6 Plus was not the dawn of a brave new world that would lead to continually increasing sales - it had simply given the choice of a larger screened iPhone to consumers who would normally have settled for the one size fits all approach. The iPhone 6S family was falling short... at which point the iPhone SE came over the hill, those who wanted a smaller screened but modern iPhone were satisfied, and sales, while not rising, at least stabilized.

With the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Plus failing to make significant inroads, and the iPhone XR having to be marketed at a $300 discount ( albeit with an obscured trade-in clause), Tim Cook may need to strongly consider the iPhone SE 2.
Now read why 2018's cancellation of the iPhone SE was a big mistake for Apple...

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More Bad News From Apple As Tim Cook Confirms Falling iPhone Sales

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Apple has lowered its revenue guidance from $93 billion $84 billion ahead of its earnings call scheduled for January 29th. With a drop of $9 billion, poor iPhone sales have cut Apple's revenue projections. As I reported in the last weeks of 2018, sales of the new iPhones have not met expectations.

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Individuals assembling Apple's iPhones in China allegedly work long hours for low pay. A new report by China Labor Watch, a labor rights organization gives specific details of the workers schedules.

Workers schedules are set at six days a week, with 11-hour shifts, 20 minutes of which is unpaid. The remainder of the shift is paid at a rate of $1.50 and hour which equals $268 per month before overtime.

This monthly pay is drastically below the basic living wage necessary to live in Shanghai, one of the most expensive cities in China, CLW claims. This low pay forces the workers to put in a ton of overtime just so that they can survive.

It's not really a surprise that the individuals assembling iPhones for Apple's supply company Pegatron work long hours to turn out a ton of product - that's been known for a long time.

But the work schedules at Pegatron factories would be illegal in the U.S.

The Pegatron facilities are currently assembling the new, cheaper version of the iPhone, which is expected to be released sometime this fall.

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Chinese Workers Making iPhones Work 11-Hour Shifts, 6 Days A Week, For $1.50 Per Hour

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Individuals assembling Apple's iPhones in China allegedly work long hours for low pay. A new report by China Labor Watch, a labor rights organization gives specific details of the workers schedules. Workers schedules are set at six days a week, with 11-hour shifts, 20 minutes of which is unpaid.

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1988 was the first year a Samsung was made.   It was the first mobile phone to be designed and manufactured in Korea.  Cassie

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As Android has grown, Samsung has come to completely dominate it. The South Korean manufacturer sold more mobile phones than any other company in 2012, accounting for 22 percent of the market, according to Gartner. Knowing that Android claimed around 70 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in 2012 and IDC research suggests that Samsung was responsible for 42 percent of all Android smartphone shipments during the year. Samsung is the most popular Android phone maker, by far.

This success is entirely built on Samsung's Galaxy brand which has encompassed over 50 separate devices, if you count all the smartphone variants, phablets, and tablets released so far. Samsung has bombarded every niche, every price point, every form factor, every carrier, and every country it can possibly reach.

When the Samsung i7500, also known as the Samsung Galaxy, was released in June 2009, it marked Samsung's entry into the Android smartphone market. The first Android smartphone, the HTC Dream (or T-Mobile G1), had been released the previous year and the all-conquering Motorola Droid was to land just a couple of months later. Few would have predicted Samsung's climb to dominance back then. Fast forward to the present day and Samsung is riding high as excitement builds ahead of the release of its newest flagship, the Galaxy S4, which is expected to be the next in line for the Android throne, and could even outsell the iPhone, if it's lucky.

The S stands for success

Throughout Samsung's assault on the smartphone market, the company has always been careful to distinguish its flagship line with the letter S.

The original Samsung Galaxy S was released in the summer of 2010 and it has sold over 24 million units worldwide. As a high-end, premium Android smartphone, it packed a 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch display, and a 5-megapixel camera. The reception was good and it was widely considered as credible competition for the HTC Desire and the iPhone 4. It was released on all of the major U.S. carriers and Samsung created a special version for each of them and differentiated them with the Epic 4G, Vibrant, Captivate, Fascinate, and Mesmerize names.

A few budget Galaxy offshoots aimed at various markets around the world followed, and the year ended with a bang as the pure Android Nexus S, co-developed with Google, launched in time for Christmas, but in 2011 Samsung was to enjoy even greater success. Hardly a month passed in 2011 without a new Galaxy smartphone - the Ace, the Fit, the Gio, the Mini, but it was the Galaxy S2 that was to secure Samsung's place at the top of the Android tree. Slim, powerful, and hugely desirable, the S2 launched in more than 120 countries in the summer of 2011.

With a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.3-inch display, and an 8-megapixel camera the S2 blew the competition away and it was widely praised as the best Android phone on the market, with some reviewers going further and calling it the best smartphone on the market. Samsung has sold more than 40 million S2 handsets since release and there have been a number of variants on different carriers and in various countries.

You'd be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja-vu as Samsung saw out 2011 with a laundry list of Galaxy models including the R, the W, the Y, the XCover, the Stratosphere, and most notably the Galaxy Nexus. The pattern continued in 2012 with the Ace Plus, the Beam, the Pocket, and then in the summer Samsung's greatest success so far.

The Galaxy S3 boasted a 1.4GHz quad-core processor (1.5 GHz dual-core in some markets), 1GB or 2GB of RAM, a 4.8-inch display with a 720p resolution, and an 8-megapixel camera. It proved to be the fastest-selling Android smartphone to date and Samsung has sold over 40 million S3 handsets in 145 countries so far, meaning it's selling at roughly double the rate of its predecessor.

For the rest of 2012 Samsung continued to pump out a huge number of Galaxy devices from the Stellar, to the Reverb, to the Rugby Pro. Samsung even released a camera under the Galaxy brand. This year has started in much the same way as the hype grows deafening in the buildup to the release of Samsung's next flagship, the Galaxy S4, which is expected to outsell its predecessors.

Relationship with Google

The Nexus S was released in December 2010 and, as a co-development with Google, it seemed to indicate Samsung's coming of age in the Android market. It was the first Android device with NFC (near-field communication) and it got a fairly good reception. The partnership obviously went well enough that the two companies collaborated again to release the Galaxy Nexus just under a year later. It boasted a high definition 720p display and launched version 4.0 of the Android platform, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. This time the reviews were universally positive, but because of the direct Web sales strategy from Google and the lack of sales statistics from carriers like Verizon and Sprint, we don't know how many people actually bought one.

It looks like that will be the last collaboration between the two companies for the foreseeable future as Motorola is widely expected to produce the next Google Android smartphone. Rumblings in the tech press suggest that Google is concerned about Samsung's dominance in the Android field.

Tablets and hybrids

Samsung hasn't confined the Galaxy brand to smartphones; it has also released the Galaxy Tab range of Android tablets and the Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet hybrids. The first Galaxy Note was a surprise success and sold over 10 million units since its release at the end of 2011. It combined powerful specs with a 5.3-inch display and a special stylus with unique functionality and related software, known as the S-Pen. Its successor, the Galaxy Note 2, upped the display to 5.55 inches and is arguably Samsung's current flagship packing a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 720p resolution display, 2GB of RAM, and storage capacity up to 128GB (if you use a microSD). It was released at the end of September 2012 and sold 5 million units in the first two months.

When it comes to tablets, Samsung's success has apparently been more modest. The range includes releases at various sizes from the 7-inch display of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 through 7.7 and 8.9 to 10.1. The Galaxy Note 10.1 is its biggest and best tablet so far and it combines the S-Pen from the smaller Note models with a large form factor traditional tablet. None of these tablets have come to rival the iPad, or even Amazon's Kindle Fire, which remains the most popular Android tablet.

Can Samsung do it again?

With reports that Samsung is planning to sell 10 million Galaxy S4 handsets a month and Galaxy S4 rumors in overdrive, we expect fireworks on March 14 (today). The trick Samsung has pulled off so successfully so far is to flood every area of the market with Galaxy devices and yet keep its flagship S series distinct. This is partly due to the design and the quality, but clever marketing has also played a huge part. Can Samsung continue to dominate so thoroughly, or has it finally grown fat and lazy on too much success?

Whatever happens later today, it will be the start of a new chapter in the history of the Galaxy brand. If history is any indication, the Galaxy S4 is going to be one wildly successful phone.

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A history of Samsung's Galaxy phones and tablets, from the S1 to the S4

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As Android has grown, Samsung has come to completely dominate it. The South Korean manufacturer sold more mobile phones than any other company in 2012, accounting for 22 percent of the market, according to Gartner.

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Austin Brodigan

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What is Apple Face ID? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Brian Roemmele, Founder + Editor at Read Multiplex, on Quora: The Next Generation Of Authentication
As of September 12th, 2017, Apple Face ID is the new replacement to TouchID. Face ID is enabled by the TrueDepth camera and is simple to set up. It projects and analyzes more than 30,000 invisible dots to create a precise depth map of your face. Face ID works with iPhone X and unlocks only when you're looking at it. It's designed to resist spoofing by photos or masks. Your facial map is encrypted and protected by the Secure Enclave. And authentication happens instantly on the device, not in the cloud.

Face ID uses the A11 Bionic chip for the machine learning to recognize changes in your appearance. You can put on glasses, wear a hat, grow a beard. Even wild makeup will not fool Face ID, it will know you. Your friends might not recognize you, but iPhone X will.
Gaze And Gaze Shift
It is estimated that the accuracy of Face ID will be 1 in 1,000,000 when compared to the 1 in 50,000 of TouchID fingerprints alone. The TrueDepth camera uses 30,000 infrared dots harmlessly projected onto your face for depth mapping. The Infrared camera reads back these features and others below the skin's unique characteristics to create a secure biometric image of your face. The front side Flood Illuminator assists in creating normalized lighting for any condition, light or dark.

The infrared front facing camera will read the structure below the skin and the micro moments to confirm that a live subject and not an image is activating or unlocking the iPhone. For additional security, Face ID is attention aware, meaning it unlocks your iPhone X only when you look toward the device with your eyes open. That means Face ID can also reveal notifications and messages, keep the screen lit when you're reading, or lower the volume of an alarm or ringer.

This technology has been available for quite some time [1] and was a part of the work done by PrimeSense, a company Apple acquired. Face ID will activate the iPhone in less than three milliseconds under most lighting conditions. The AI will decide when your gaze shifts and will lock the iPhone.

The setup for Face ID is simple; the user sees the video motion of the head and duplicates this with an outer ring indicator.

The gaze and the gaze shift will allow for a number of unique attributes to an app. At some point Apple may open a Face ID Kit API development tool allowing gaze to have in impact on the modality of the apps.

There is also a very good chance that technology gained by the 2016 acquisition of Emotient [2] may be used to gauge the emotional state of the user. This can aid in detection of a number of potential issues. It will aid in screening for static images as it would be impossible to simulate easily the transient movement of the forty-three muscles that control facial expression and the emotional intent.
Security And Speed
In 2013 I wrote extensively about TouchID [3]. I said at the time:

Steve Jobs hated logins and passwords, and he was going to do something about it.
It was the late winter of 2007 and while many of us were just starting to get used to the iPhone and all the ways it was changing the world, Steve Jobs was already planning a completely new paradigm for a future iPhone release. Although Steve loved the "Slide To Unlock" feature, he knew that the steps involved and the time it took to unlock the screen when a passcode is being used was unacceptable. Steve predicted that as the iPhone became more indispensable and formed the center of our lives, it would be used perhaps hundreds of times per day, not just as a phone, but as our primary connected computer. Additionally, early data from iPhone users proved that only a very small percentage even bother using a passcode, that included Steve.

Steve and Apple engineers went about crafting a way to solve this problem and along the way they discovered that there could be a lot more use cases this new system could address. By September 9th, 2008, Apple began to file one of the first few patents addressing this technology.
Your fingerprint, all of your credentials
Steve and the team were forming one of the early foundational premises for the Touch ID: to secure what will become your most important device and to elegantly open the phone with just a tap of a finger. However, it became very clear that this level of security could be extended to a wide number of uses.

This premise, security and fast access, has driven Apple to continue to invent and build more advanced systems to Face ID today. Apple acquired RealFace in February 19, 2017 [4]. The Israeli startup was a cybersecurity and machine learning firm specializing in facial recognition technology formed in 2014 for an estimated $2 million or somewhat more. Most of the technology in Face ID comes from RealFace with some technology from Prime Sense. On November 24, 2013, Apple purchased PrimeSense for $360 million and it also forms the foundation technology of ARKit.
New Face ID Based Apple Pay
Face ID with Apple Pay and Apple Pay Cash will fundamentally change how you pay. New streamlining and sounds guide the experience. Apple Pay will be invoked by a double press of the "side button", the former "lock/power button", showing a new wallet arrangement.

Apple Pay + Face ID will work on iPhone X about 50% faster than TouchID. New pay confirmation signals including sound and modified haptics will notify a completed Apple Pay + Face ID transaction.
The Face ID Icon
Face ID will have a simple setup process that uses this iconography and video to instruct facial position angles. This video will show you how to move your face during the initial setup of Face ID. Apple has had a long lineage of "faces" starting from the very first Apple Macintosh icon from 1984 designed by the amazing Susan Kare. This history spans to System 8 Finder in 1997, up to the current version of Mac OS and now on to Face ID.
Face ID Changes Everything
I also suspect that we will see Face ID used with a new version of HomePod for authentication at a distance. I wrote about this prospect in February, 2017 [4] and tied the Apple acquisition ultimately to a Voice First system that has become HomePod. In my view, Apple wanted to release this technology first on iPhone and later on other systems like a new version of HomePod with a camera and display screen.

Face ID will radically change everything we thought we knew about authentication. It will change the way we use apps and payments. Face ID alone will become a central selling point for the next iPhones. Our faces have been our unique identity from the dawn of time, today with Face ID it moves into the world of AI, once again our face will be our ID.

_____

[1] ID got you, under the skin: Automated thermal face recognition based on minutiae extraction

[2] Apple's AI secret: How the 43 muscles in your face will play a big part of Apple's new AI And Siri2

[3] Why is Apple's iPhone Touch ID Important?

[4] Why did apple acquire facial recognition company RealFace?
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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How Does Apple's New Face ID Technology Work?

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What is Apple Face ID? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Brian Roemmele, Founder + Editor at Read Multiplex, on Quora: The Next Generation Of Authentication As of September 12th, 2017, Apple Face ID is the new replacement to TouchID.

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Tracing the path from deadly hand-dug mines in Congo to consumers' phones and laptops
Todd C. Frankel Michael Robinson Chavez Jorge Ribas
September 30, 2016

The sun was rising over one of the richest mineral deposits on Earth, in one of the poorest countries, as Sidiki Mayamba got ready for work.

Mayamba is a cobalt miner. And the red-dirt savanna stretching outside his door contains such an astonishing wealth of cobalt and other minerals that a geologist once described it as a "scandale geologique."

This remote landscape in southern Africa lies at the heart of the world's mad scramble for cheap cobalt, a mineral essential to the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles made by companies such as Apple, Samsung and major automakers.

But Mayamba, 35, knew nothing about his role in this sprawling global supply chain. He grabbed his metal shovel and broken-headed hammer from a corner of the room he shares with his wife and child. He pulled on a dust-stained jacket. A proud man, he likes to wear a button-down shirt even to mine. And he planned to mine by hand all day and through the night. He would nap in the underground tunnels. No industrial tools. Not even a hard hat. The risk of a cave-in is constant.

"Do you have enough money to buy flour today?" he asked his wife.

She did. But now a debt collector stood at the door. The family owed money for salt. Flour would have to wait.

Mayamba tried to reassure his wife. He said goodbye to his son. Then he slung his shovel over his shoulder. It was time.

The world's soaring demand for cobalt is at times met by workers, including children, who labor in harsh and dangerous conditions. An estimated 100,000 cobalt miners in Congo use hand tools to dig hundreds of feet underground with little oversight and few safety measures, according to workers, government officials and evidence found by The Washington Post during visits to remote mines. Deaths and injuries are common. And the mining activity exposes local communities to levels of toxic metals that appear to be linked to ailments that include breathing problems and birth defects, health officials say.

The Post traced this cobalt pipeline and, for the first time, showed how cobalt mined in these harsh conditions ends up in popular consumer products. It moves from small-scale Congolese mines to a single Chinese company - Congo DongFang International Mining, part of one of the world's biggest cobalt producers, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt - that for years has supplied some of the world's largest battery makers. They, in turn, have produced the batteries found inside products such as Apple's iPhones - a finding that calls into question corporate assertions that they are capable of monitoring their supply chains for human rights abuses or child labor.

Mobile power, human toll

The world has grown reliant on lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops and electric cars. But the desperate search for the ingredients carries a steep cost.

More in this series: Graphite in China and Lithium in Argentina

More in this series: Cobalt in Congo and Lithium in Argentina

More in this series: Cobalt in Congo and Graphite in China

Apple, in response to questions from The Post, acknowledged that this cobalt has made its way into its batteries. The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant said that an estimated 20 percent of the cobalt it uses comes from Huayou Cobalt. Paula Pyers, a senior director at Apple in charge of supply-chain social responsibility, said the company plans to increase scrutiny of how all its cobalt is obtained. Pyers also said Apple is committed to working with Huayou Cobalt to clean up the supply chain and to addressing the underlying issues, such as extreme poverty, that result in harsh work conditions and child labor.

Another Huayou customer, LG Chem, one of the world's leading battery makers, told The Post it stopped buying Congo-sourced minerals late last year. Samsung SDI, another large battery maker, said that it is conducting an internal investigation but that "to the best of our knowledge," while the company does use cobalt mined in Congo, it does not come from Huayou.

Few companies regularly track where their cobalt comes from. Following the path from mine to finished product is difficult but possible, The Post discovered. Armed guards block access to many of Congo's mines. The cobalt then passes through several companies and travels thousands of miles.

Yet 60 percent of the world's cobalt originates in Congo - a chaotic country rife with corruption and a long history of foreign exploitation of its natural resources. A century ago, companies plundered Congo's rubber sap and elephant tusks while the country was a Belgian colony. Today, more than five decades after Congo gained its independence, it is minerals that attract foreign companies.

Scrutiny is heightened for a few of these minerals. A 2010 U.S. law requires American companies to attempt to verify that any tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold they use is obtained from mines free of militia control in the Congo region. The result is a system widely seen as preventing human rights abuses. Some say cobalt should be added to the conflict-minerals list, even if cobalt mines are not thought to be funding war. Apple told The Post that it now supports including cobalt in the law.

Congo's cobalt trade has been the target of criticism for nearly a decade, mostly from advocacy groups. Even U.S. trade groups have acknowledged the problem. The Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition - whose members include companies such as Apple - raised concerns in 2010 about the potential for human rights abuses in the mining of minerals, including cobalt, and the difficulty in tracking supply chains. The U.S. Labor Department lists Congolese cobalt as a product it has reason to think is produced by child labor.

Concern about how cobalt is mined "comes to the fore every now and again," said Guy Darby, a veteran cobalt analyst with Darton Commodities in London. "And it's met with much muttering and shaking of the head and tuttering - and goes away again."

In the past year, a Dutch advocacy group called the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations, known as SOMO, and Amnesty International have put out reports alleging improprieties including forced relocations of villages and water pollution. Amnesty's report, which accused Congo DongFang of buying materials mined by children, prompted a fresh wave of companies to promise that their cobalt connections were being vetted.

But the problems remained starkly evident when Post journalists visited mining operations in Congo this summer.

In September, Chen Hongliang, the president of Congo DongFang parent Huayou Cobalt, told The Post that his company had never questioned how its minerals were obtained, despite operating in Congo and cities such as Kolwezi for a decade.

"That is our shortcoming," Chen said in an interview in Seattle, in his first public comments on the topic. "We didn't realize."

Chen said Huayou planned to change how it buys cobalt, had hired an outside company to oversee the process and was working with customers such as Apple to create a system for preventing abuse.

But how such serious problems could persist for so long - despite frequent warning signs - illustrates what can happen in hard-to-decipher supply chains when they are mostly unregulated, low price is paramount and the trouble occurs in a distant, tumultuous part of the world.

In fact, a small piece of Kolwezi cobalt could be inside the smartphone you may be using to read this article right now.

Amount of cobalt in different devices

5 to 10 grams

1 ounce

(a slice of bread)

10 to 20 pounds

Lithium-ion batteries were supposed to be different from the dirty, toxic technologies of the past. Lighter and packing more energy than conventional lead-acid batteries, these cobalt-rich batteries are seen as "green." They are essential to plans for one day moving beyond smog-belching gasoline engines. Already these batteries have defined the world's tech devices.

Smartphones would not fit in pockets without them. Laptops would not fit on laps. Electric vehicles would be impractical. In many ways, the current Silicon Valley gold rush - from mobile devices to driverless cars - is built on the power of lithium-ion batteries.

But this comes at an exceptional cost.

"It is true, there are children in these mines," provincial governor Richard Muyej, the highest-ranking government official in Kolwezi, said in an interview. He also acknowledged problems with mining-related deaths and pollution.

But, he said, his government is too poor to tackle these issues alone.

"The government is not a beggar," Muyej said. "These companies have an obligation to create wealth in the area where they operate."

Companies are unlikely to abandon Congo, for a simple reason: The world needs what Congo has.

Chen said he expected controversy surrounding how cobalt is mined in Congo to ripple far beyond Huayou Cobalt.

"This issue, I believe, we are not the only ones," he said. "We believe there are many companies in similar situations as us."

'Lungs of the Congo'

The worst conditions affect Congo's "artisanal" miners - a too-quaint name for the impoverished workers who mine without pneumatic drills or diesel draglines.

This informal army is big business, responsible for an estimated 10 to 25 percent of the world's cobalt production and about 17 to 40 percent of production in Congo. Artisanal miners alone are responsible for more cobalt than any nation other than Congo, ranking behind only Congo's industrial mines.

The industry should be a boon for a country that the United Nations ranks among the least developed. But it hasn't worked out that way.

"We are challenged by the paradox of having so many resource riches, but the population is very poor," Muyej said.

Kolwezi is a remote city steeped in cobalt and copper, which are often found together. It is sometimes called the "Lungs of the Congo" because of its economic importance.

The city sits along a two-lane highway best known for carrying tractor-trailers laden with minerals as they hurtle for the border with Zambia 250 miles away.

Then it's on to seaports in Tanzania or South Africa.

From there, most of the cobalt floats by ship to Asia, home to the vast majority of the world's lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

About 90 percent of China's cobalt originates in Congo, where Chinese firms dominate the mining industry.

The cobalt begins its journey at a mine such as Tilwezembe, a former industrial site turned artisanal operation on the outskirts of Kolwezi where hundreds of men scour the earth with hand tools.

These men call themselves "creuseurs," French for "diggers." They toil inside dozens of holes pockmarking the mine's moonscape-like bottom. The tunnels are dug by hand and burrow deep underground, illuminated only by the toylike plastic lamps strapped to the miners' heads.

During a visit in June, the scene looked preindustrial. Dozens of diggers were at work, but the only sound was the occasional muffled clink of metal on stone.

"We are suffering," said one digger, Nathan Muyamba, 29. "And our suffering is for what?"

'La fleur du cobalt'

Diggers don't have mining maps or exploratory drills.

Instead, they rely on intuition.

"You travel with the faith believing that one day you can find good production," said digger Andre Kabwita, 49.

Nature is said to be one guide. Yellow wildflowers are considered a sign of copper. A plant with tiny green flowers carries the telling name "la fleur du cobalt."

With few formal sites to claim for themselves, artisanal miners dig anywhere they can. Along roads. Under railroad tracks. In back yards. When a major cobalt deposit was discovered a few years ago in the dense neighborhood of Kasulo, diggers tunneled right through their homes' dirt floors, creating a labyrinth of underground caves.

Other diggers wait until dark to invade land owned by private mining companies, leading to deadly clashes with security guards and police.

The diggers are desperate, said Papy Nsenga, a digger and president of a fledgling diggers union.

Pay is based on what they find. No minerals, no money. And the money is meager - the equivalent of $2 to $3 on a good day, Nsenga said.

"We shouldn't have to live like this," he said.

And when accidents occur, diggers are on their own.

Last year, after one digger's leg was crushed and another suffered a head wound in a mine collapse, Nsenga was left to raise the hundreds of dollars for treatment from other diggers. The companies that buy the minerals rarely help, Nsenga and other diggers said.

Deaths happen with regularity, too, diggers said. But only mass casualties seem to filter out to the scant local media, such as the U.N.-funded Radio Okapi. Thirteen cobalt miners were killed in September 2015 when a dirt tunnel collapsed in Mabaya, near the Zambia border. Two years ago, 16 diggers were killed by landslides in Kawama, followed months later by the deaths of 15 diggers in an underground fire in Kolwezi.

In Kolwezi, a provincial mine inspector frustrated by a recent run of accidents agreed to talk to The Post on the condition that he not be identified, because he was not permitted to talk to the media.

He met the journalists in a minibus - jumping in, closing the door and taking a seat in the middle, far from the tinted windows so no one on the street could see him.

That morning, he said, he had helped rescue four artisanal miners nearly overcome by fumes from an underground fire in Kolwezi. The day before, two men had died in a mining tunnel collapse, he said.

He said he had personally pulled 36 bodies from local artisanal mines in the past several years. The Post was not able to independently verify his claims, but they echoed stories from diggers about the frequency of mining accidents.

The inspector blamed companies such as Congo DongFang that buy the artisanal cobalt and ship it overseas.

"They don't care," he said. "To them, if you bring them minerals and you're sick or hurt, they don't care."

Congo DongFang responded that it had incorrectly assumed that these issues were the concern of its trading partners, who buy the cobalt from the miners and pass it on to the mining company.

Child labor

No one knows exactly how many children work in Congo's mining industry. UNICEF in 2012 estimated that 40,000 boys and girls do so in the country's south. A 2007 study funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development found 4,000 children worked at mining sites in Kolwezi alone.

Local government officials say they lack the resources to address the problem.

"We have a big challenge with the children, because it is difficult to take them out of the mines when there are no schools for these children to go to," said Muyej, the provincial governor. "We have to find a solution for this."

While officials and diggers acknowledge the problem of child labor, it remains a sensitive topic. Children work not just in underground mines, in violation of Congo's mining code, but also on the fringes of the cobalt trade.

Guards prevented Post journalists from visiting areas where, according to local diggers, children often can be found working. At one point, The Post saw a boy in a red sweatshirt struggling to carry a half-full sack of mineral rocks. Another boy in a black soccer jersey ran up to help. Kabwita, the digger, watched them.

"They are just 10 or 12," he said.

The Post also gave an iPhone to a digger to capture video of how women and children wash cobalt ores together.

One of these children is Delphin Mutela, a quiet boy who looks younger than his 13 years.

When he was about 8, his mother began taking Delphin with her on her trips to the river to clean cobalt ores. Washing minerals is a popular job for women here. At first, Delphin was tasked with keeping an eye on his siblings.

But he learned to distinguish the loose mineral pieces that fell into the water during washing.

Copper carried a hint of green.

Cobalt looked like dark chocolate.

If he could collect enough bits, he could get paid, maybe $1.

"The money I get I use to buy notebooks and so I can pay school fees," Delphin said.

His mother, Omba Kabwiza, said this is normal.

"There are many children there," she said. "That's how we live."

Skyrocketing demand

Cobalt is the most expensive raw material inside a lithium-ion battery.

That has long presented a challenge for the big battery suppliers - and their customers, the computer and carmakers. Engineers have tried for years to craft cobalt-free batteries. But the mineral best known as a blue pigment has a unique ability to boost battery performance.

The price of refined cobalt has fluctuated in the past year from $20,000 to $26,000 a ton.

Video: How lithium-ion batteries work

Lithium-ion batteries work much like other batteries - there's a positive electrode and a negative electrode, and the electrons move from one end to another, creating a charge. The difference is the materials inside, which make them lighter, longer-lasting and rechargeable.
Watch the video
Worldwide, cobalt demand from the battery sector has tripled in the past five years and is projected to at least double again by 2020, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

This increase has mostly been driven by electric vehicles. Every major automaker is rushing to get its battery-powered car to market. Tesla's $5 billion battery factory in Nevada, known as the Gigafactory, is ramping up production. Daimler aims to open a second battery plant in Germany soon. LG Chem makes batteries for General Motors at a plant in Holland, Mich. Chinese company BYD is working on huge new battery plants in China and Brazil.

While a smartphone battery might contain five to 10 grams of refined cobalt, a single electric-car battery can contain up to 15,000 grams.

As demand has grown, so has artisanal cobalt's importance in global markets. That became clear to everyone in the battery world two years ago, said Kurt Vandeputte, vice president of the rechargeable-battery materials unit at Belgium-based Umicore, one of the world's largest cobalt refiners.

Cobalt demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to double by 2025

Source: Christophe Pillot, Avicenne Energy

The cobalt price was falling, even as battery demand shot up. The price of lithium, another key battery material, was skyrocketing.

"It got so clear that artisanal mining was taking a big place in the supply chain," Vandeputte said, adding that Umicore buys only from industrial mines, including mines in Congo.

Artisanal cobalt is usually cheaper than product from industrial mines. Companies do not have to pay miners' salaries or fund the operations of a large-scale mine.

With cheap cobalt flooding the market, some international traders canceled contracts for industrial ores, opting to scoop up artisanal ones.

"Everyone knew something was going on," said Christophe Pillot, a battery consultant at Avicenne Energy in France.

At the same time, companies face growing scrutiny of their supply chains.

Consumers demand accountability; companies respond with promises of "ethical sourcing" and "supply chain due diligence."

One result of this increased scrutiny can be found in Congo.

In 2010, the United States passed a conflict-minerals law to stem the flow of money to Congo's murderous militias, focusing on the artisanal mining of four minerals.

But this same diligence is not required when it comes to cobalt.

While cobalt mining is not thought to be funding wars, many activists and some industry analysts say cobalt miners could benefit from the law's protection from exploitation and human rights abuses. The law forces companies to attempt to trace their supply chains and opens up the entire route to inspection by independent auditors.

But while Congo is a minor supplier of the four designated conflict minerals, the world depends on Congo for cobalt.

Analyst Simon Moores at Benchmark said he thinks this is one reason that cobalt has so far been excluded.

Any crimp in the cobalt supply chain would devastate companies.

'We sell this to the Chinese'

For most artisanal miners in Kolwezi, the global supply chain begins in a marketplace called Musompo.

The 70 or so small shops, known as "comptoirs," are stacked cheek by jowl along the highway that leads to the border. Shop names are painted on cement walls: Maison Saha, Depot Grand Tony, Depot Sarah. Each shop has a handwritten board listing the going rate for cobalt and copper.

At a shop named Louis 14, the price list offered the equivalent of $881 for a ton of 16 percent cobalt rock. Rock with 3 percent cobalt was worth $55.

Nearby, minibuses pulled up with white sacks of freshly mined cobalt to sell. More sacks arrived on bicycles loaded down like pack animals.

Each load was tested by a radar-gun-like device called a Metorex, which detects mineral content. Some of the miners said they do not trust the machines, believing them to be rigged, but they have no alternative. Muyej, the governor, said he was looking for funds to buy a Metorex machine so diggers could independently test their minerals. There are many shops in Musompo, but diggers said the shops sold to the same company: Congo DongFang Mining.

"We sell this to the Chinese, and then the Chinese take it to CDM," said Hubert Mukekwa, a shop worker shoveling cobalt.

In Congo, it is illegal for foreigners to own a comptoir. But not a single shop visited by Post journalists appeared to be run by Congolese. Asian men operated the Metorex machines. They punched up the tallies on oversize calculators. They handled the cash - thick wads of Congolese francs. And they often could be seen sitting in the back while Congolese men carried the 120-pound sacks. None of the comptoir bosses would talk to The Post.

Mukekwa finished filling up one sack.

"Once we have enough stock to take it to CDM," he said, "we take it there."

He pointed at a large blue-walled compound in the distance.

At a comptoir named Boss Wu, two Congolese workers, in jumpsuits with CDM printed in block letters on the back, stood watching other men loading cobalt sacks onto a truck.

Later, The Post witnessed an orange truck loaded with cobalt sacks pulling away from Musompo and onto the main highway.

"C24" was painted in blue on the truck's cab. The Post followed C24 two miles up the highway, where it turned onto a dirt road running next to a tall brick wall. The truck continued on the road until it reached an entrance with armed guards and turned inside.

The facility with big blue walls was clearly marked CDM.

It was at these same gates that CDM says its inspection of its supply chain had stopped, never extending to the mines or marketplace, said Chen, the president of Huayou Cobalt, the parent company of CDM.

"We, in fact, didn't know that much" about who they bought cobalt from, Chen said. "Now, we do due diligence."

Tracing your battery's cobalt

The lithium-ion battery industry has a massively complicated supply chain. Each consumer company has dealt with multiple suppliers - and their suppliers have dealt with multiple suppliers. This shows some of the connections within the industry. See companies' responses to Washington Post's investigation.

Sources: Public documents, interviews with company officials and industry analysts.

What the companies say

Companies, in response to The Post's questions, sounded equally uncertain about their cobalt supply chain, illustrating how little is known about the sources of raw materials.

But expectations are different today, said Lara Smith of Johannesburg-based Core Consultants, a firm that helps mining companies with this problem.

"Companies can't claim ignorance," Smith said. "Because if they wanted to understand, they could understand. They don't."

Last year, CDM reported exporting 72,000 tons of industrial and artisanal cobalt from Congo, making it No. 3 on the list of the country's largest mining companies, according to Congolese mining statistics.

And CDM is by far Congo's top exporter of artisanal cobalt, according to analysts and the company.

CDM ships its cobalt to its parent company, Huayou, in China, where the ore is refined. Among Huayou's largest customers are battery cathode makers Hunan Shanshan, Pulead Technology Industry and L&F Material, according to financial documents and interviews.

Company responses

The Washington Post asked consumer-product companies and battery makers about their cobalt supply chains. Here is what they said:

Congo DongFang Mining/Huayou Cobalt, Apple, LG Chem, LG, Ford, General Motors, Samsung SDI, Samsung, BMW, Amazon.com, Pulead L&F Material, Hunan Shanshan, Amperex Technology Limited (ATL)

These companies - which also buy refined minerals from other companies - make the cobalt-rich battery cathodes that play a critical role in lithium-ion batteries. These cathodes are sold to battery makers, including companies such as Amperex Technology Ltd. (ATL), Samsung SDI and LG Chem.

All of these battery makers supply Apple, providing power for iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Apple said its investigation revealed that its batteries from LG Chem and Samsung SDI contain cathodes from Umicore, which may contain cobalt from Congo but not from CDM. Apple said it thought its suspect cobalt was contained in ATL batteries with Pulead cathodes.

"I think the risks can be managed," Pulead chief executive Yuan Gao told The Post, adding that he believes "the increased awareness is actually working, as everyone is monitoring everyone else along the supply chain."

ATL also has supplied battery cells found in some Amazon Kindles, according to analysis by IHS, the global information company. ATL declined to comment.

Amazon.com, the company founded by Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos, did not directly answer The Post's questions about potential connections to suspect cobalt. The company issued a statement, reading in part: "We work closely with our suppliers to ensure they meet our standards, and conduct a number of audits every year to ensure our manufacturing partners are in compliance with our policies."

More from this series

Cobalt in Congo Workers, including children, labor in harsh and dangerous conditions to meet the world's soaring demand for cobalt.

Graphite in China There's a trace of graphite in many of today's consumer devices. In these Chinese villages, it's in their water, inside their homes and on their food.

Lithium in Argentina Indigenous people are left poor as tech world takes lithium from under their feet.

Samsung SDI, which supplies batteries for Samsung, Apple and automakers such as BMW, said that its own ongoing investigation "has not shown any presence" of suspect cobalt, although it does use cobalt from Congo.

Samsung, the phonemaker, provided The Post with a statement saying that it takes supply-chain issues seriously but not addressing a potential connection to CDM. Samsung buys batteries for its phones from Samsung SDI and ATL, among others, according to industry data.

BMW acknowledged that some of the cobalt in its Samsung SDI batteries comes from Congo but said The Post should ask Samsung SDI for more details.

LG Chem, the world's largest supplier of electric-car batteries, said the company it buys cathodes from, L&F Material, stopped using Congo-sourced cobalt from Huayou last year. Instead, it said, Huayou now supplies L&F Material with cobalt mined from the South Pacific island of New Caledonia. As proof, LG Chem provided a "certificate of origin" for a cobalt shipment in December 2015 for 212 tons.

But two minerals analysts were skeptical that LG Chem's cathode supplier could switch from Congo cobalt to minerals from New Caledonia - or, at least, do so for long. LG Chem consumes more cobalt than the entire nation of New Caledonia produces, according to analysts and publicly available data. L&F Material did not respond to repeated requests for comment. When The Post asked LG Chem to "respond to claims that the numbers don't add up," LG Chem did not answer the question directly, responding that it checks certificates of origin on a routine basis.

LG Chem also runs a Michigan battery plant for one of its biggest customers, GM, which plans to start selling its electric Chevrolet Bolt later this year. LG Chem said the Michigan plant has never received Congolese cobalt.

Another LG Chem customer, Ford Motor, said it has been told by LG Chem that Ford batteries have no history of CDM cobalt.

Most Tesla models use batteries from Panasonic, which buys cobalt from Southeast Asia and Congo. Replacement batteries for Tesla are manufactured by LG Chem. Tesla told The Post it knows LG Chem's Tesla batteries do not contain Congolese cobalt, but it did not say how it knows this.

Tesla, more than any other automaker, has staked its reputation on "ethically sourcing" every piece of its celebrated vehicles.

"It is something we do take very seriously," Kurt Kelty, Tesla's director of battery technology, said in March at a battery conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "And we need to take it even more seriously. So we are going to send one of our guys there."

Six months later, Tesla told The Post it is still working on sending someone to Congo.

Birth defects, illness

In Lubumbashi, another center of Congo's mining industry, 180 miles from Kolwezi, doctors have begun to unravel what has long been a mystery behind a range of health problems for local residents.

Their findings point to the mining industry as the problem.

These doctors at the University of Lubumbashi already know miners and residents are exposed to metals at levels many times higher than what is considered safe.

One of their studies found residents who live near mines or smelters in southern Congo had urinary concentrations of cobalt that were 43 times as high as that of a control group, lead levels five times as high, and cadmium and uranium levels four times as high. The levels were even higher in children.

Another study, published earlier this year, found elevated levels of metals in the mining region's fish. A study of soil samples around mine-heavy Lubumbashi concluded the area was "among the ten most polluted areas in the world."

Now the doctors are working to connect the dots.

"We are trying to draw a line between disease and metals," said Eddy Mbuyu, a university chemist.

But they are cautious about their task.

"The mining business has the money, and that money means power," said Tony Kayembe, an epidemiologist at the university's hospital.

Current studies are looking at thyroid conditions and breathing problems. But doctors are most concerned by possible connections to birth defects. One study the university doctors published in 2012 found preliminary evidence of an increased risk of a baby being born with a visible birth defect if the father worked in Congo's mining industry.

The Lubumbashi doctors also have issued reports on birth defects so rare - one is called Mermaid syndrome - that they are the only cases ever known in Congo. All occurred in children born in heavy mining regions.

For Kayembe, the study that stood out most looked at babies born with holoprosencephaly, a usually fatal condition that causes severe, distinctive facial deformities. It is almost unheard of. Entire medical careers pass without seeing one. But last year, doctors in Lubumbashi recorded three cases in three months.

"This is not normal," Kayembe said.

These medical inquiries could bring some relief to residents such as Aimerance Masengo, 15, who has been blaming herself since giving birth last year to a baby boy with severe, fatal birth defects.

In a voice barely above a whisper, Aimerance recalled how she had been so scared when she saw her newborn. The doctor was scared, too, she said.

The doctor told Aimerance it was impossible to know for certain what went wrong. But, he noted, the baby's father worked as a cobalt digger. He told Aimerance he had seen many problems in the children born to diggers.

Aimerance and the baby's father lived in the nearby village of Luiswishi, home to 8,000 people. Everyone there seemed to be connected to artisanal mining. And in the past three years, according to local activists, four newborns from this tiny village have died of severe birth defects.

The 'creuseurs' wait

For diggers such as Sidiki Mayamba, worried about affording flour for his family, the greatest concern is not safety or potential health problems. It is money. He needs the work. But he doesn't want his 2-year-old son, Harold, to follow him into the mines.

"A digger is a hard job with many risks," Mayamba said. "I cannot wish for my child to have this kind of job."

Cleaning up the cobalt supply chain will not be easy for Huayou Cobalt, even with the support of a powerful company such as Apple.

But Chen, Huayou's president, said it is the proper action, not only for the company but also for the Congolese miners.

"Some companies just want to get away from the problem," Chen said. "But Congo's problem is still there. The poverty is still there."

The question is whether Huayou's other customers, after years of buying cheap cobalt with no questions, will be supportive.

Pyers, the Apple senior director, said the company does not want to take steps aimed at just "making the supply chain look pretty."

"If we all cut and run from the Democratic Republic of Congo, it would leave the Congolese people in a devastating position," Pyers said. "And we will not be a party to that here."

Starting next year, Apple will internally treat cobalt like a conflict mineral, requiring all cobalt refiners to agree to outside supply-chain audits and conduct risk assessments.

Apple's action could have major repercussions throughout the battery world. But change will be slow. Apple spent five years working to certify that its supply chain was free of conflict minerals - and that action was enforced by law.

None of these efforts change the fate of diggers such as Kandolo Mboma.

At the Tilwezembe mine this summer, Mboma sat on a boulder, seemingly catatonic, his blue jeans stained black, his bare feet dangling just above the red dirt. His eyes failed to register the other diggers filing past.

"He was working all night, and he has not eaten," a fellow digger said.

Mboma, 35 and a father of three, was waiting for his cobalt to be weighed. Then, he hoped, he would get paid.

He sat next to a series of small food stalls, stout squares of discarded mining sacks stretched over sticks, where a digger could buy a bread roll for 100 Congolese francs, equal to about 10 cents. The bread came with a free cup of water.

"You eat what you make," Mboma said finally.

And eating would have to wait.

Peter Whoriskey in Washington contributed to this report.

Story by Todd C. Frankel. Photos by Michael Robinson Chavez. Video editing by Jorge Ribas. Graphics by Lazaro Gamio and Tim Meko. Design by Matt Callahan, Emily Chow and Chris Rukan.

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This is where your smartphone battery begins

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Todd C. Frankel Michael Robinson Chavez Jorge Ribas September 30, 2016 The sun was rising over one of the richest mineral deposits on Earth, in one of the poorest countries, as Sidiki Mayamba got ready for work. Mayamba is a cobalt miner.

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Designed in California, made in India. Maybe.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has "sought incentives" to set up a manufacturing facility in India, according to a new report.

Apple reportedly made its case to the country's Department of Revenue and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeITY).

"The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will [next] write to both the departments regarding this communication for their views," an official with knowledge of the matter said, according to the Economic Times.

Apple could potentially broker a favorable deal based on India's Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme, which is designed to boost the company's tech manufacturing industry by offering subsidies.

However, while this is one more piece of evidence that Apple is keen to invest in India (it has already explored the possibility of opening official Apple stores in the country, and is investing in local R&D centers), don't expect anything to happen overnight.

There has long been talk about Apple manufacturer Foxconn shifting iPhone production to India, since this would allow it to get around the problem of accelerating wage inflation in China, where the majority of iPhones are made at the moment.

But as can be seen by the protracted process of getting Apple retail stores approved to open in India, this can be an incredibly drawn-out undertaking - even when the goals of Indian officials and Apple/Foxconn appear to be aligned.

Local handset manufacturers are not exactly the biggest fans of Apple. They have some sway at a legislative level, so expect to hear plenty more about this story before anything is 100 percent confirmed.

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Apple gets one step closer to iPhones made in India | Cult of Mac

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Apple has "sought incentives" to set up a manufacturing facility in India, according to a new report. Apple reportedly made its case to the country's Department of Revenue and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeITY).

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On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage for what was the most incredible keynote presentations of his life-a life filled with incredible keynote presentations-and in the history of consumer electronics.

The company had been working for over two years on the Purple Experience Project. It had gone from a tablet to a phone. From a dream to reality. And just before he stepped out in front of the crowd, Jobs assembled his team and told them to remember the moment: The moment before iPhone. Because, in the next moment, everything would change.

Watch the video above. Seriously. It's way better.

During the keynote, Steve Jobs said it was rare enough for a company to revolutionize even one product category. Apple had already revolutionized two: Computers with the Mac and personal music players with the iPod. With the iPhone they'd be going for three.

He set up and knocked down the physical keyboard and the stylus, features that dominated the BlackBerry, Motorola, and Palm smartphones of the day. Then Jobs introduced the multitouch interface that let the iPhone smoothly pinch-to-zoom, the physics-based interactivity that included inertial scrolling and rubberbanding, and the multitasking that let him move seamlessly from music to call to web to email and back.

They were technologies that would one day become commonplace across the industry but back then looked like science-fiction. From Apple (opens in new tab):

iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone. We are all born with the ultimate pointing device-our fingers-and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.

Technology alone wasn't enough

The original iPhone, based on the P2 device of the Project Experience Purple (PEP) team, code-named M68 and device number iPhone1,1, had a 3.5-inch LCD screen at 320x480 and 163ppi, a quad-band 2G EDGE data radio, 802.11b.g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, and a 2-megapixel camera.

It was powered by an ARM-based 1176JZ(F)-S processor and PowerVR MBX Lite 3D graphics chip, manufactured by Samsung, with a 1400 mAh battery, and had 128MB of onboard RAM. Two NAND Flash-based storage tiers were available at launch: 4GB or 8GB.

More importantly, iPhone also included several sensors to enhance the experience, like an accelerometer that could automatically rotate the screen to match device orientation, a proximity sensor that could automatically turn off the screen when close to the face, and an ambient light sensor that could automatically adjust brightness.

And it could also be charged-and critically, synced to iTunes-by the same 30-pin Dock connector as Apple's already exceedingly popular iPod.

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On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage for what was the most incredible keynote presentations of his life-a life filled with incredible keynote presentations-and in the history of consumer electronics. The company had been working for over two years on the Purple Experience Project.

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84+ billion in profits - after watching these videos is Apple responsible for this injustice?

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84+ billion in profits - after watching these videos is Apple responsible for this injustice?

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CBS News' investigation of child labor in African cobalt mines revealed the shocking fact that tens of thousands of children are still growing up without a childhood. On Monday we showed you how most of the mineral used to make batteries is unearthed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Many top electronic and electric vehicle companies need cobalt to help power their products. We spoke with some of the companies that use cobalt in their lithium-ion batteries. All the companies acknowledged problems with the supply chain, but said they require suppliers to follow responsible sourcing guidelines.

Apple is an industry leader in the fight for responsible sourcing, but it says walking away from the DRC, "would do nothing to improve conditions for the people or the environment."

Children still mining cobalt for gadget batteries in Congo

An estimated two-thirds of children in the region of the DRC that CBS News visited are not in school. They're working in mines instead. What we found when we travelled to the south of the country for this investigation was a complex host of barriers for children; weak economy, corrupt government, but above all, poverty.

CBS News correspondent Debora Patta followed one young boy, Ziki Swaze, home from a mine to understand the challenges he faces as his family's main provider. Ziki has never been to school. He has no idea how to read or write, but he is an expert in washing cobalt.

He is one of an estimated 40,000 children in the DRC getting paid a pittance to produce cobalt. Every evening the 11-year-old returns home with a dollar or two to provide for his family.

"I have to go and work there," he told Patta, "because my grandma has a bad leg and she can't."

See the "hell" your phone battery came from

"There is no one to look after her," he said. "I am the one who helps."

It is a common story in the DRC. Kids need to work to survive.

"I feel very bad because I can see my friends going to school," Ziki told us, "and I am struggling."

At a nearby school, CBS News saw children doing what they should be doing. Every one of the pupils was rescued from a mine and entered into the school and the associated support program to help them get a decent education.

It is all thanks to Sister Catherine Mutindi and her colleagues at the Good Shepherd project. They've rescued more than 1,000 children from the mines in the southern DRC.

CBS News finds children mining cobalt in Democratic Republic of Congo

The kids who manage to get here get a hot meal, and a break from reality.

"It's horrible, and they know that it is very dangerous," Mutinidi said of the conditions for children in the mines. "We have over 100 orphans, total orphans in this school, and they have lost their parents in the mines. Some of the children when they came here, they have gone through accidents, broken limbs, so they know the dangers."

The safe haven is funded by international charities including USAID and, most recently, by a global cobalt supplier, Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM). Their last reported annual earnings were over $100 million. After child-mined cobalt was exposed in their supply chain, CDM donated $71,000 to the Good Shepherd project, and said it had implemented responsible sourcing guidelines.

The children are given academic classes, but they also learn how to be kids again.

"That is where we begin with the children actually, you know, helping them to begin to think about tomorrow. There's a tomorrow, because they think of today," Mutindi told Patta.

But for Ziki, tomorrow has to wait.

When Patta asked him what he thinks about in the moments before he falls asleep at night, he answered, simply, "school." It remains just a dream for him.

While life is tremendously difficult for the children CBS News met at the mines, Sister Catherine told us she's hopeful. Within a year, she sees a transformation in the kids who are rescued. These children may be the future, but first, they have to realize they have one.

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What's life like for kids mining cobalt for our gadgets?

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CBS News' investigation of child labor in African cobalt mines revealed the shocking fact that tens of thousands of children are still growing up without a childhood. On Monday we showed you how most of the mineral used to make batteries is unearthed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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- Samy

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Even if President Donald Trump won his battle with Apple and the tech giant started to manufacture its iPhones in the United States, it might not even be a good idea.

Trump lashed out at Apple recently after the company said the White House's proposed $200 billion tariffs on Chinese goods would hurt its business. Trump tweeted: "Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now."

It's tempting to write off Trump here as just tweeting populist rhetoric, but he actually does hit on something interesting - should Apple be making more of the iPhone and other products in the US?

If Apple managed to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States, analysts say that assembling the iPhone here wouldn't actually make it much more expensive. As Konstantin Kakaes wrote in the MIT Technology Review in 2016, putting together the iPhone in the US from parts made abroad would only cost about $30 to $40 more per phone, a modest increase for a device with a 64 percent profit margin. Even if every part was made in the US, an iPhone would cost about $100 more, Kakaes concluded, assuming raw materials were still purchased on global markets.

The issue is not so much cost of putting an iPhone together, or even the cost per part on paper. The issue is skill, scale, expertise, and infrastructure - all of which require money, time and long-term investment. Unlike other manufacturing jobs that have migrated from the United States, Apple wouldn't be bringing them "back" so much as starting from scratch. The cost would come in attempting to build a system that's never been in the US, but has been built over decades abroad.

And even if Apple could somehow manage to bring the whole process to the United States, at a huge cost, there might not even be much of an advantage in terms of global trade. China makes only about $8 per phone, so placing Apple and its supply chain in the midst of the US-China trade dispute just isn't that smart.

"It always sounds good when a president sounds tough on trade and issues protectionist policies," Wayne Lam, principal analyst at information and analytics firm IHS Markit, told me. "We just don't have the sheer workforce size nor skill set to be good at consumer electronics manufacturing."

Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China - but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting! #MAGA
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2018

China isn't just cheaper

It's tempting to assume that the reason Apple assembles its phones in China is cost. After all, the minimum wage is a fraction of what it is in the United States. But that doesn't explain why, then, Apple doesn't go somewhere even cheaper. Why aren't iPhones built in, say, Nicaragua, where labor is even less expensive? The answer is skill.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said last year that he needs a "rare" combination of craftsman-like skill, sophisticated robotics, and computer science. That combination is a system that's been built over time in countries like China that have made the investment.

"There's a confusion about China," Cook said. "The popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor cost. I'm not sure what part of China they go to, but the truth is China stopped being the low labor-cost country many years ago. And that is not the reason to come to China from a supply point of view. The reason is because of the skill, and the quantity of skill in one location and the type of skill it is."

Apple contracts with different companies to manufacture an iPhone's various parts (such as the chip or display) and then with other companies, such as Foxconn or Jabil, which are headquartered in Taiwan and Florida, respectively, that put together those parts to build the device. The company says last year it spent more than $50 billion with about 9,000 US suppliers and manufacturers, meaning some parts are already from the US. ("We have always made parts here," Cook told MSNBC in March. "People just look at where the final product is assembled.")

Trying to make the display in the US instead of, say, Japan or South Korea could potentially be "juiciest target" in getting more production in America, said Greg Linden, a research associate at the Institute for Business Innovation at Berkeley and expert in global value chains, because it's the most expensive component of the iPhone. Still, Apple would essentially have to convince their suppliers to fire their workers in Asia and expand operations in the US.

What does "Made in America" mean?

When we talk about "Made in America," that can mean multiple things. It could mean assembling parts that are brought in from other places. Or it could mean making some of the parts and assembling them here. Or - the most difficult - sourcing every single component and material from the US.

The simplest option for Apple to claim it "makes" iPhones in the US would be option one, bringing in the pieces and putting them together here.

Just assembling an iPhone in the US would increase the price, Kakaes found, but only modestly: Most iPhones are assembled in China or, in some cases, Brazil. Putting them together in the US instead would run anywhere from about $10 to $40extra because of labor costs and the additional transportation and logistics expenses incurred of shipping parts made elsewhere to the US.

IHS Markit, the information and analytics firm that does "teardowns" of each iPhone to determine the cost of its components, estimated that the iPhone 8 plus contained about $8 in "manufacturing costs" - the price of assembly, including machines and manual labor. IHS estimates that moving assembly to the US would at least double the manufacturing costs of the iPhone. That estimate doesn't include the overhead costs and markup those manufacturers ultimately charge Apple, or what Apple charges consumers.

An iPhone assembled in America from some American-made parts would be more expensive: If components were to be made in the US as well as assembled here, Kakaes found that it would increase the cost of the iPhone by about $100.

Apple could, theoretically, absorb some of those costs - IHS estimates the iPhone X materials cost $370.25, and the phone is sold for nearly $1,000 - or it could pass them on to consumers.

Sweeteners needed

The government would probably need to provide generous sweeteners to make any of this happen.

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has committed $10 billion to build a plant in Wisconsin. The state's giving the company about $4 billion in incentives.

"It takes a few years to get a display or chip factory up and running, so committing to a multi-billion-dollar investment for one of them requires a certainty that the products will have a local market when the factory starts running," Linden said. "For that reason, it probably makes more sense to start assembling phones here first, then worry about the components later."

In 2013, Motorola announced that its Moto X would be " designed, engineered, and assembled " in the US - specifically, in Texas. The parts were still imported from China and elsewhere, then put together in the US. The phones wound up costing a few percentage points more than they would have had assembly taken place in Asia, Linden said, and the Texas plant closed in 2014.

Google dabbled in a similar idea with its media player, Nexus Q, but that didn't work out either. "These were both experiments that ultimately came to the same conclusion that manufacturing in China is the most economically viable option," Lam, from IHS, told me.

Trying to get Apple to make all of its iPhones or other products in the US is kind of a bad idea

Trump often complains about the US-China trade deficit, which was $375 billion in 2017, and computers and electronics contribute a significant portion of that amount. The president has focused on manufacturing jobs in that context. But such a narrow purview, specifically with regard to Apple, misses some important points.

iPhone exports look like a big loss to the US - by one estimate, imports of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus contributed $15.7 billion, or 4.4 percent, to the 2017 trade deficit with China - but the calculation is more complicated.

China isn't actually making that much money off of the iPhone, at least in comparison to the device's total cost. Linden, along with Syracuse University information studies professor Jason Dedrick, and University of California-Irvine business research professor Kenneth Kraemer, earlier this year estimated that China only makes $8.46 for each iPhone made.

That's a fraction of the $240 factory cost that's recorded when it enters the US from China, or the amount the government "counts" as what's being imported. In other words, the government tallies each iPhone brought in as $240 toward the deficit, instead of what researchers say should be less than $9.

"This number does not reflect the reality of how much value China actually gets from its iPhone exports - or from many of the brand-name electronics goods it ships to the US or elsewhere," the researchers wrote. "Thanks to the globe-spanning supply chains that run through China, trade deficits in the modern economy are not always what they seem."

Apple has warned some of its products, but not the iPhone,will be affected if Trump imposes additional tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products. The company has said they would cause it to raise prices on products such as the Apple Watch and AirPods, its wireless headphones. The Trump administration has reportedly assured Cook that the iPhone won't be affected by tariffs.

Experts also argue that Trump's narrow focus on manufacturing jobs ignores the other jobs - particularly white-collar roles - that Apple creates in the US.

In 2011, Linden, Dedrick, and Kraemer studied the iPod, which was largely produced offshore. They found that in 2006, the iPod supported nearly twice as many offshore jobs as in the United States, but the total wages paid to US workers was twice as much paid to those overseas. Because Apple keeps most of its research and development and corporate support in the US, it's able to provide thousands of high-paid professional and engineering jobs.

The bottom line is that China and other countries in Asia have become a hub of consumer electronics manufacturing, and as much as Trump and other politicians might try to insist tech companies, including Apple, bring more production to the US, overhauling the current setup isn't as simple as just building a factory.

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How much would the iPhone cost if it were made in America?

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Even if President Donald Trump won his battle with Apple and the tech giant started to manufacture its iPhones in the United States, it might not even be a good idea. Trump lashed out at Apple recently after the company said the White House's proposed $200 billion tariffs on Chinese goods would hurt its business.

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https://www.coolsmartphone.com/2014/09/23/some-interesting-facts-about-iphone-manufacturing/
-Haleigh

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Parts of iPhone -Devin

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Anyone who has bought an iPhone or another Apple product has seen the note on the company's packaging that its products are designed in California, but that doesn't mean they're manufactured there. Answering the question of where the iPhone is made isn't simple.

Assembled vs. Manufactured

When trying to understand where Apple manufactures its devices, there are two key concepts that sound similar but are different: assembling and manufacturing.

Manufacturing is the process of making the components that go into the iPhone. While Apple designs and sells the iPhone, it doesn't manufacture its components. Instead, Apple uses manufacturers from around the world to deliver individual parts. The manufacturers specialize in particular items-camera specialists manufacture the lens and camera assembly, screen specialists build the display, and so on.

Assembling, on the other hand, is the process of taking all the individual components built by specialist manufacturers and combining them into a finished, working iPhone.

The iPhone's Component Manufacturers

Because there are hundreds of individual components in every iPhone, it's not possible to list every manufacturer whose products are found on the phone. It's also difficult to discern exactly where those components are made because sometimes one company builds the same component at multiple factories.

Some of the suppliers of key or interesting parts for the iPhone 5S, 6, and 6S and where they operate, included:

Accelerometer: Bosch Sensortech, based in Germany with locations in the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan

Audio chips: Cirrus Logic, based in the U.S. with locations in the U.K., China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore

Battery: Samsung, based in South Korea with locations in 80 countries

Battery: Sunwoda Electronic, based in China

Camera: Qualcomm, based in the U.S. with locations in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and more than a dozen locations through Europe and Latin America

Camera: Sony, based in Japan with locations in dozens of countries

Chips for cellular networking: Qualcomm

Compass: AKM Semiconductor, based in Japan with locations in the U.S., France, England, China, South Korea, and Taiwan

Glass screen: Corning, based in the U.S., with locations in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Turkey, the U.K., and the United Arab Emirates

Gyroscope: STMicroelectronics. Based in Switzerland, with locations in 35 countries

Flash memory: Toshiba, based in Japan with locations in over 50 countries

Flash memory: Samsung

LCD screen: Sharp, based in Japan with locations in 13 countries

LCD screen: LG, based in South Korea with locations in Poland and China

A-series processor: Samsung

A-series processor: TSMC, based in Taiwan with locations in China, Singapore, and the U.S.

Touch ID: TSMC

Touch ID: Xintec. Based in Taiwan.

Touch-screen controller: Broadcom, based in the U.S. with locations in Israel, Greece, the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, France, India, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea

Wi-Fi chip: Murata, based in the U.S. with locations in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Vietnam, The Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, and Finland

The iPhone's Assemblers

The components manufactured by those companies all around the world are ultimately sent to just two companies to assemble into iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Those companies are Foxconn and Pegatron, both of which are based in Taiwan.

Technically, Foxconn is the company's trade name; the firm's official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. Foxconn is Apple's longest-running partner in building these devices. It currently assembles the majority of Apple's iPhones in its Shenzen, China, location, although Foxconn maintains factories in countries across the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Thanks for letting us know!

Other Not enough details Hard to understand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Where Is the iPhone Made? (It's Not Just One Country!)

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Curious about where the iPhone is made? With such complex devices, there's no simple answer, but the details are here.

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touch idea  -nathanael

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anyone who has bought an iPhone or another Apple product has seen the note on the company's packaging that its products are designed in California, but that doesn't mean they're manufactured there. Answering the question of where the iPhone is made isn't simple.

Assembled vs. Manufactured

When trying to understand where Apple manufactures its devices, there are two key concepts that sound similar but are different: assembling and manufacturing.

Manufacturing is the process of making the components that go into the iPhone. While Apple designs and sells the iPhone, it doesn't manufacture its components. Instead, Apple uses manufacturers from around the world to deliver individual parts. The manufacturers specialize in particular items-camera specialists manufacture the lens and camera assembly, screen specialists build the display, and so on.

Assembling, on the other hand, is the process of taking all the individual components built by specialist manufacturers and combining them into a finished, working iPhone.

The iPhone's Component Manufacturers

Because there are hundreds of individual components in every iPhone, it's not possible to list every manufacturer whose products are found on the phone. It's also difficult to discern exactly where those components are made because sometimes one company builds the same component at multiple factories.

Some of the suppliers of key or interesting parts for the iPhone 5S, 6, and 6S and where they operate, included:

Accelerometer: Bosch Sensortech, based in Germany with locations in the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan

Audio chips: Cirrus Logic, based in the U.S. with locations in the U.K., China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore

Battery: Samsung, based in South Korea with locations in 80 countries

Battery: Sunwoda Electronic, based in China

Camera: Qualcomm, based in the U.S. with locations in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and more than a dozen locations through Europe and Latin America

Camera: Sony, based in Japan with locations in dozens of countries

Chips for cellular networking: Qualcomm

Compass: AKM Semiconductor, based in Japan with locations in the U.S., France, England, China, South Korea, and Taiwan

Glass screen: Corning, based in the U.S., with locations in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Turkey, the U.K., and the United Arab Emirates

Gyroscope: STMicroelectronics. Based in Switzerland, with locations in 35 countries

Flash memory: Toshiba, based in Japan with locations in over 50 countries

Flash memory: Samsung

LCD screen: Sharp, based in Japan with locations in 13 countries

LCD screen: LG, based in South Korea with locations in Poland and China

A-series processor: Samsung

A-series processor: TSMC, based in Taiwan with locations in China, Singapore, and the U.S.

Touch ID: TSMC

Touch ID: Xintec. Based in Taiwan.

Touch-screen controller: Broadcom, based in the U.S. with locations in Israel, Greece, the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, France, India, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea

Wi-Fi chip: Murata, based in the U.S. with locations in Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Vietnam, The Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, and Finland

The iPhone's Assemblers

The components manufactured by those companies all around the world are ultimately sent to just two companies to assemble into iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Those companies are Foxconn and Pegatron, both of which are based in Taiwan.

Technically, Foxconn is the company's trade name; the firm's official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. Foxconn is Apple's longest-running partner in building these devices. It currently assembles the majority of Apple's iPhones in its Shenzen, China, location, although Foxconn maintains factories in countries across the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Thanks for letting us know!

Other Not enough details Hard to understand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Where Is the iPhone Made? (It's Not Just One Country!)

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Curious about where the iPhone is made? With such complex devices, there's no simple answer, but the details are here.

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When?
Steve Jobs released the first iPhone in 2007 - Candis

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When?
Steve Jobs released the first iPhone in 2007 - Candis

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It's not just the best-selling gadget ever created: It's probably the most influential one too. Since Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in 2007, Apple has sold close to 1.5 billion of them, creating giant businesses for app developers and accessory makers, and reimagining the way we live. Millions of people use an iPhone as their only computer. And their only camera, GPS device, music player, communicator, trip planner, sex finder, and payment tool. It put the world in our pockets.

Before the iPhone, smartphones mostly copied the BlackBerry. After the iPhone, they all copied Apple: Most phones now have big screens, beautiful designs, and ever-improving cameras. They even have "notches," or, cut-outs at the top of their edge-to-edge displays, where the phone's front-facing camera lives.

And the iPhone Effect goes far beyond smartphones. In order to make so many phones, Apple and its competitors set up huge, whirling supply chains all over the world. Those same manufacturers now make the same parts to power drones, smart-home gadgets, wearables, and self-driving cars. They don't look like your phone, but they might not be here without it.

Thanks to the iPhone and the apps developed for it, the world has reorganized itself around the smartphone, and a few people have started to wonder what the iPhone hath wrought. They worry that we spend too much time buried in our phones, heads down, ignoring the people and the world around us.

Social media, in particular, is being questioned. We always always knew that there was an exchange, that if we were using free apps, we were giving up something in return; but now there are concerns about where exactly all that data ends up. We're becoming accustomed to a sense of undefinable stress, the feeling like there's always too much going on and you can never get away even if you want to. The smartphone is one of the portals into this sometimes-dystopian data vortex.

But at the same time, there's no denying that the iPhone has utterly transformed our lives-and that anything truly transformational will both solve existing problems and introduce new ones.

The Invention of the iPhone

Jobs announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007, on stage at the Macworld conference. He spent nearly an hour explaining the device, extolling the virtues of everything from a touch interface to a huge, desktop-sized version of The New York Times' website that you could pan around. He even made a phone call (how quaint!) and placed what has to be the largest Starbucks order in history to an apparently real barista at an apparently real Starbucks. The whole event stands as a remarkable piece of tech-industry history, and you can still watch it all (on your phone) on YouTube.

The phone didn't come out until six months after that initial reveal, during which time Apple frantically scrambled to turn Jobs' demo into a mass-market gadget. When it finally hit stores in June, people lined up outside stores to buy one. Apple sold 270,000 iPhones the first weekend it was available, hit 1 million by Labor Day, and instantly captured the imagination of phone owners everywhere.

The iPhone 3G, which came out a year later, may have been an even bigger deal. Apple's 2008 iPhone included support for 3G networks, which offered much faster access to email and web pages, and it came at a much lower price. Most important, it added the App Store, which gave developers a way to build and sell software to millions of smartphone owners. The App Store will almost certainly stand as Apple's most important contribution to both the tech industry and society in general, even more than the phone itself. Developers immediately began building apps and games that changed the way we communicate, work, eat, and play. The App Store made way for Instagram, Uber, and Tinder, and it turned the iPhone into the pocket computer it was always meant to be.

From there, the iPhone's story is one of evolution, not revolution. Each year, Apple made the phone bigger and faster, refining the product without changing the basic form factor or its most beloved features. It became more popular every time. From the beginning, Apple seemed to know the camera could be a smartphone's best feature: The iPhone 4, with its selfie camera and HD video recording, was the biggest thing in cameras since Kodak. Ever since, Apple's cameras have been among the best in their class.

Timeline: What Was New in Every iPhone

Jobs always said Apple had a five-year lead with the first iPhone. That turned out to be conservative-it took six or seven years for Samsung and others to make truly competitive phones like the Galaxy S and the HTC One. Then, after successfully copying the iPhone, they found their own niches. Samsung bet on pen input and big screens; Google fine-tuned Android and starting shipping its own hardware running optimized versions of the software; and other companies made great phones for a fraction of the iPhone's price. The iPhone was the only best choice for so long, but others finally caught up.

In 2017, the 10th anniversary of that Macworld speech, Apple determined it was time to shake things up a bit with the iPhone. It released the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, solid but unsurprising updates on the same theme that was already established. But it also tried something different, with the launch of the the iPhone X.

Apple ditched the home button in order to make the phone nearly all screen and bet on facial recognition as the key to both your phone and a whole new set of apps and features. (Again: cameras are everything.) It also tried to bring augmented reality into mainstream existence while making your phone and data more secure than ever. And, as a bonus, the iPhone X had the craziest emoji features anyone had ever seen up to that point. The company's approach was radical, but also, extremely Apple: It was attempting to usher its customers into a new technological world, but it would do it while emphasizing privacy, security, and features that keep you completely locked into Apple.

Despite its high price tag and speculation that the iPhone X's later ship date would impact sales, it sold respectably well. In the spring of 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the X was the company's most popular device sold every week since its launch in November 2017. But the iPhone X was short-lived as far as smartphones go, because Apple pushed it to the background as soon as the iPhone XS was announced in September 2018.

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The Complete History of the iPhone-and What's Coming Next

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Its influence goes far beyond other phones-the infrastructure that made the iPhone also enabled drones, smart-home gadgets, wearables, and self-driving cars.

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They sell their best quality cobalt for about 7,000 a ton. -Emma

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February 22, 2018 by Samir Tounsi And Lucien Kahozi

A man digs through some mine waste searching for left over cobalt near Kolwezi

In global markets the price of cobalt, a mineral used in batteries for high-tech products from iPhones to Tesla electric cars, has nearly tripled to $81,500 a tonne in two years.

But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which produced two-thirds of the global supply of the coveted metal last year, artisanal diggers called "creuseurs" sell their best-quality ore for about $7,000 a tonne, blissfully unaware of how much the global price has rocketed.

In Kolwezi, a mining town in southeastern DRC, Chinese entrepreneurs dominate the middle section of the market, purchasing the raw cobalt from miners and selling it on for refining.

Transactions in the buying houses depend on the purity of the ore. There are approximately 30 major kinds of cobalt-bearing rock and over 100 more where the metal is present in smaller quantities.

Handwritten signs at the buying houses in Kolwezi show the varying prices offered for a tonne: "3 percent = $500" and "15 percent = $7,000". The cobalt component is determined by a machine called "Metorex" which is used by the buyer.

"The buyers have increased prices since the start of the year by five percent," said a miner called David, who was unaware that cobalt prices on the world market have reached such stratospheric heights.

The middlemen-predominantly Chinese and some Indians-then sell the raw material to operators for semi-processing.
80% exported to China
The big names in this part of the process are foreign-owned: China Molybdenum, Rangold, the Swiss firm Glencore and MMG, an Australian-Chinese venture, and the Indian-controlled Chemical of Africa.

Only an initial treatment of the ore is possible in DRC at present. It results in an intermediary product composed mainly of hydroxide with a cobalt content of between 20 and 40 percent.

"The DRC does not export finished products that are ready to be used by Apple, Samsung and the other big battery users in the world," said economist and activist Florent Musha.

"It exports a mineral product which is in the process of being treated."

Eighty percent of the country's production heads to China from the ports of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Cape Town in South Africa. In China, the metal is refined, by about a dozen companies.

The sector has attracted widespread criticism for the use of child labour, hazardous working conditions, corruption and theft

The largest producers include Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Corp., Huayou Cobalt, Jiangsu Cobalt Nickel Metal and Shenzhen Green Eco-manufacture Hi-tech which each have annual refined cobalt production capacities of over 7,000 metric tonnes.

"The production of refined cobalt in China has grown 20 percent. At 62,000 tonnes, it accounts for 60 percent of global output," Darton Commodities said.
Benefits?
But how much do the people of Congo benefit from the boom?

"Today the world's biggest seller of cobalt is China," said Congolese economist Musha. "The product clearly does not benefit the Congolese economy."

The cobalt sector has attracted widespread criticism from NGOs for use of child labour, hazardous working conditions, corruption and theft.

Artisanal miners accounted for between 14 to 16 percent of the 80,800 tonnes of cobalt mined in the country last year, according to the London-based Darton Commodities, a specialist firm dealing in the metal.

The DRC would like to refine its minerals but has run into problems, notably infrastructural glitches like erratic power supplies.

There is some prospect of change.

The government last year signalled its intention to reform its 2002 mining code, which was seen as favouring foreign investors at the expense of the local economy.

It wants to ensure the repatriation of at least 40 percent of the revenue of minerals sold for export, and increase the fiscal take from "strategic minerals."

At present, the state levies a tax of two percent on non-ferrous metals-copper and cobalt-which is based on the value of sales, from which some costs are deducted.

The current draft of the revised plan-now in the hands of President Joseph Kabila-sees this rising to 10 percent.

Shareholders in big mining corporations with interests in DRC have written to Kabila to express their concern, hoping that this version of the law will be revised, according to industry sources in Kinshasa.

© 2018 AFP

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Cobalt prices soar, but Congo's small miners see little of the gain

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February 22, 2018 by Samir Tounsi And Lucien Kahozi In global markets the price of cobalt, a mineral used in batteries for high-tech products from iPhones to Tesla electric cars, has nearly tripled to $81,500 a tonne in two years.

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During 2018, the company was worth over $1 trillion. Kiersten

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Apple Is Officially the First Trillion Dollar U.S. Company

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Apple's $1 trillion dollar valuation is the highest market cap ever reached by an American company

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Link your learning info - concerning the posting of your website 

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Link your learning info - concerning the posting of your website 