Apple Inc: TNC case study
Introduction
Apple Inc is a transnational electronic technology corporation which is diversified and evolved in terms of new technologies
Wide range of products such as: IPhones, Apple Watch, Apple TV
Company started in 1976
Largest IT company by revenue and employees 137,000 full time staff over 510 retail stores
Spaitial organisation and linkages
Apple is a truly global company with a distinctive geography.
Their main products are designed in Silicon Valley, California
products made in mainland China by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company, and sold over all the world
Different components that are used in products are sourced from companies based in various countries all over the world
Wifi chips can orginate from any one of the 20 countires in the Americas, Europe or Asia
Most of Apple’s employees are based in HDE’s, mainly in the USA, reflecting the high-tech, knowledge-intensive nature of the business.
However, those manufacturing the product are employed by the rcompanies and a number up to 2.5 million, nearly 20 time those employed by the company itself
Apple has expanded its activities in the USA in recent years
its HQ and R & D and design centre are together at Apple Park in Cupertino, California
It has a further large campus and MacPro assembly facility employing 6,000 people in Austin, Texas, which it plans to expand to employ a further 10,000
It has five data centres int he USA
Apple now employees 90,000 people in all 50 states of the USA
Apple has it’s European, Middle-Eastern and African headquarters in Cork, Ireland
it employees 6,000 workers on its iMac production line
Cork acts as global transport logistics hub for Apple, organising shipments assembled iPhones and IPads around the world
The use of outsourcing to Foxconn
Working conditions
-employee mostly live on site, where there are dormatiries, shops and cafes
Most are young migrant workers form other parts of China
In 2018, Quanata Compute, another contractor which manufactures Apple Watches was found to have been employing high school students as interns
Apple now demands that its contractors limit student interns to 10% of factories workforce