Emendata

iPhone: A global product At first sight, we can affirm that iPhone is a global product because of the material flows.

Indeed, thanks to the help of the first and second documents, we can observe that all the components which constitute a iPhone 4;4S or 6 are not made in the same country.

If we look at the first document, we see that «  all iPhones contain hundreds of parts, an estimated 90 percent of which are manufactured abroad ».

Furthermore, we can say that the iPhones are the result of a globalized process.

In fact, Apple Inc where the headquarters are located in Cupertino California create a new international division of labour with its worldwide relocations and investments ( for example with the FDI: Foreign Direct Investments).

Thanks to that, the Transnational Corporation can get around trade barriers and escape trade tariffs but also reduce costs by gaining access to cheaper labour.

That’s why the assembly of the iPhones is made in several parts of the World.

The first documents highlights the fact that «  Advanced semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan; memory from Korea and Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chipsets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia.

And all of it is put together in China ».

But, an iPhone can’t be referred to a global product just because its components come from everywhere and they are assembled in China; because if we look at the definition of a globalized product, we can see that a product is considered as a Global Product if it was made in different countries and it is spread in several parts of the world.

Consequently, we can underline the idea that the iPhone is a global product according to the number of smartphone’s customers who use it.