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pdinc t1_ja7394d wrote

Reply to comment by Mahameghabahana in Samsung may shift its next-gen foldable phone production to India - Times of India by Mahameghabahana

I agree the skilled labor issue would solve over time, but choosing to manufacture their most complex flagship product is what is ballsy here, when Apple is struggling on even making their lower end and simpler products in India.

Its relatively common to manufacture the latest product in country A and migrate production of that product to lower cost countries over time. For example, Gillette has always done that with their razors. But setting up your flagship manufacturing in a new country which doesnt have the needed infrastructure is a supremely risky move.

And as I mentioned - beside the labor issue, there is also the cultural issue. It's telling that Vivek Wadhwa is saying the solution is for Apple to learn "jugaad"; when the choice is developing a new set of jugaadu skills in India vs. setting up manufacturing in other SE Asian countries, the appeal of Indian manufacturing diminishes.

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aminy23 t1_ja76eiu wrote

Apparently Samsung has quite a history in India:

> Samsung has been manufacturing mobile phones in India since 2007, and is the only brand that is truly made in India. Samsung India has been populating Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) right from its inception.

> India will tally in 29% of Samsung's total global smartphone production --- a 9% rise from its current 20% contribution.

> Samsung's display arm begins OLED panel production at Noida plant

So with 15 years of experience making 20-30% of their smartphones in India, it doesn't seem too risky to finally try a flagship.

That doesn't compare to Apple experimenting with metal parts made by a car manufacturer, Tata/Jaguar.

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pdinc t1_ja778jw wrote

TIL - that definitely changes my perspective. Although the reason I focused on the Apple example is because the Fold is also all about the chassis, the fact that Samsung has operated for other components means their learning curve is smaller relative to Apple.

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Mahameghabahana OP t1_ja77b8z wrote

Well considering many amount of companies are manufacturing in india compared to indonesia or Vietnam, something is really going well. Samsung already have quite a large mobile manufacturing facilities and now there are also some companies investing to making semiconductor so at least something is working.

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[deleted] t1_ja75ik3 wrote

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