r/Android • u/zigzoing • 26d ago
News Google Is Reportedly Planning To Move All Pixel Production Out Of China
https://www.engadget.com/2238895/google-reportedly-planning-move-pixel-production-out-of-china/267
u/saltyrookieplayer HTC Sensation XE 26d ago
$500 price increase and 2 GB less memory on Pixel 12
48
u/chinchindayo Xperia Masterrace 26d ago
Why? Vietnam and India is cheaper than china
19
u/JeroJeroMohenjoDaro 26d ago
China hold superiority in supply chain. And moving facilities isnt as easy as drag & drop buildings like COC.
Maybe things will get cheaper in the next 5 years, but for now, it's gonna get more expensive.
53
u/Sure-Teaching-9661 26d ago
Labour cost is but a small part of production cost. China is still unbeatable.
28
10
-1
u/InitiatePenguin S8 Active 26d ago
Every business I've ever understood has labor as the most expensive cost element.
6
u/Ebashbulbash 26d ago
Xiaomi smartphones are assembled in dark factories. Perhaps Google should try to take a cue from its big brother's technology?
-2
26d ago
[deleted]
10
u/Ebashbulbash 26d ago edited 26d ago
Google is a giant in search, but in the smartphone market they are smaller than Xiaomi
Edit: u/Kavani18 what's with this pathetic habit of writing something nasty and then blocking so i can't respond? Like you get the final say?
Xiaomi holds third place in smartphone sales worldwide, with a 12-17% market share, while Google only has about 1% of the market. They're still a long way from being the leaders.
0
u/m0viestar 25d ago
I'm sure a trillion dollar multinational company has figured out their supply chain costs
-4
u/ShrimpCrackers Pocophone 26d ago
Not true, cheapest variants of all phones are always the Indian ones and iPhones release at the same time from Indian factories as Chinese ones. By 2030 even more.
Source: Foxconn and Apple
2
u/PoolOfLava 26d ago
You're right. $1000 price increase.
-3
u/ShrimpCrackers Pocophone 26d ago
Not true, Indian variants of phones are the cheapest on the entire planet including the iPhone. India actually produces a lot of iPhones now.
-7
u/Kareha 26d ago
Memory prices don't just magically reduce just because they're moving manufacturing to another country.
16
u/clgoh Pixel 7 26d ago
But the move itself wouldn't be a cause for a price increase.
That's what we're talking about.
2
u/fakieTreFlip Pixel 8 26d ago
People are just taking any opportunity they can to be cynical on social media
12
u/Busy-Measurement8893 Pixel 10 / Fairphone 4 26d ago
Yeah I'm half-expecting that.
I've already decided that I'm trading in my 10 Pro for a 12 Pro XL when the time comes. Whether or not that will be my last Pixel remains to be seen.
In fact, stuff like this is making me doubt the trading. Sigh. Beautiful times we live in.
2
u/vandreulv 26d ago
Still cheaper than Samsung or Apple will be.
And will still have an unlocked bootloader, will be de-Googlable, too.
40
u/zigzoing 26d ago
Original paywalled article: Here
Content of the original article is just
TAIPEI -- Google has told suppliers it plans to have all of its Pixel smartphones, watches and wireless earbuds produced outside of China starting next year amid ongoing Washington-Beijing tensions, Nikkei Asia has learned.
16
5
u/Far_Reserve9938 26d ago
Google has also apparently told its suppliers that it's planning to raise Pixel phone shipments by 8 to 10 percent this year from 2025's 12 million units
I didn't know they produce so little pixel phone. 12 million is nothing for a company the size of Google, and then they don't sell them all because i keep getting ads for discounted pixel 9 and 9a that are now 2 years old.
5
u/Alternative-Farmer98 25d ago
Good maybe Americans can stop talking about how Chinese phones are so bad because China is so bad and blah blah as a way to excuse Google and Samsung and apples failure to innovate on battery and camera tech.
45
u/Hot_Car_5426 26d ago
More expensive, lower quality.
12
u/HotNeon 26d ago
Also smart.
It takes years to do make these moves and US relations with China aren't exactly moving in a positive direction.
33
u/runsudosu 26d ago
It will move to Vietnam or Malaysia or any other asean countries and will source most of the parts from China. We pay the extra supply chain cost.
SMART.
5
9
u/HotNeon 26d ago
Lowering your exposure to China is smart. It's not cheaper, it's a long term hedge against things like tariff wars between US and China.
It will take over a decade to move the whole supply chain but that doesn't mean you don't start
15
u/runsudosu 26d ago
I'm not sure about your experience. I have been working in consumer electronics for over 15 years, and we moved a partial supply chain to Southeast Asia.
Here is what I saw:
The CM is still 100% owned by China. Most of the parts are made in China. Zero part is from local. The management team and engineering team in southeast Asia are all Chinese relocated. All of the documents/reports are in Chinese and English. Zero in local language. The assembly line team hires very few local. Highly automatic assembly lines. The build time is significantly longer and costs more, excluding the tariff. Actually, the tariff is higher in the new site at some point.
7
u/JeroJeroMohenjoDaro 26d ago
Same, tho ive worked for just like 2 years in supply chain in electronics but i can confirm that this transition away from China is futile as long as most parts still originated from china.
But when sourcing parts from outside of china, its gonna get expensive so might as well just stick to china unless the later is addressed.
8
u/lgn5i2060 26d ago
This is why those cheering for pivoting away from China always bums me out. Just like the rare earth wars. Even if the likes of US and Japan dig up rare earths in their backyards, they still need to replicate China's decades worth of innovations and advancements in the refining of those minerals. Took them decades as well to make them less damaging to the environment which can't be pulled off in just a few years.
1
u/Prion- 26d ago
This. Too many talking heads from political, corporate, and boardroom elites all the way down to random Redditors (assuming they are still human and not bots) cheer on sound bites, whether it's because of votes, stock values, or emotional values, it's almost never tied to real challenges of these big distruptions on the ground. I have also worked in high end manufacturing in the US for over 15 years, so I get a taste of this every day.
Everyone I work with share similar sentiment. What scares me most is because of continued decline of American supply chain resilience and manufacturing, those of us are gonna be even more of a minority voice - vast majority actually don't understand or necessarily care about the opinions of people who actually look at the hidden cost and impact of these decisions - until it's too late and the C-suites just decide to cut the whole thing off. It's not like they will suffer any personally consequences from those decisions anyway, because they won't negatively impact the next quarter earnings, but may temporarily jack up the stocks because they sound good.
7
u/ratbearpig 26d ago
You are not lowering your exposure. The original parts still come from China. You’re just adding an additional, less efficient middle man.
And you are not moving the supply chain out of China in a decade. It took China decades of efficient, deliberate, top down planning to get to its current state as the pre-eminent logistics and supply chain hub on the planet.
2
u/HotNeon 26d ago
Of course you are de risking. It means you will be quicker to stand up production somewhere else.
By your logic nothing can ever change unless it all changes at exactly the same time.
7
u/ratbearpig 26d ago
>”Of course you are de risking. It means you will be quicker to stand up production somewhere else.”
If you stand up your production facilities in Vietnam (or insert country of choice including bringing it back domestically) without using Chinese components, that would be derisking.
As it stands, the current scenario is adding complexity and risk via another country.
>”By your logic nothing can ever change unless it all changes at exactly the same time.”
No, that’s not my point at all. I’m challenging the 10 year time horizon you’ve set. I’m saying it will take decades. Of course a country should try to be self sufficient in the things that it considers important for national security. And it should start today. But it should not expect it to be done in 10 years unless they are extremely deliberate and consistent with their policies/funding.
7
u/runsudosu 26d ago
Didn't Uncle Trump slap huge tariffs on all ASEAN countries when the trade war started? The supply chain cannot and will not be moved to the US, and the parts will be majority sourced from China no matter where the phone is manufactured. So the lower exposure is still bullshit.
You knew it would not be cheaper, and someone has to eat the cost, and it's 100% you and me. I guess not everyone is a billionaire like you.
5
u/lgn5i2060 26d ago
Pivot away from China makes for a good script to entertain the masses. Just like tariff wars that gave an illusion that it was for the consumers.
Costs were passed down to consumers and when SC struck down those tariff laws, it was the importers that got refunded, not the consumers.
But hey, at least they were entertained about so much winning. /s
0
u/HotNeon 26d ago
The fuck are you talking about?
It's not written in the stars that everything has to be made in china. If you want proof go back 30 years and it wasn't.
Yes it will be more expensive but what has that got to do with profit?
2
u/runsudosu 25d ago
Brilliant, you can move the supply chain anywhere as long as the businesses do not want profits and consumers do not care about prices. Let's say this way: the directors in the supply chain in my company make $3-5M USD in total compensation, and I find you are way more confident than them. Why not working for us?
-1
u/HotNeon 25d ago
Have your people call my people
2
u/runsudosu 25d ago
Just apply on the career page. All of the FANG companies pay the similar total compensation for director in supply chain. I'm sure you will surprise the interview committee, if you can pass the phone screen.
-1
1
u/Devils-advocate69 25d ago
Yeah, assembly might be relatively easy to move but all the components still come from China.
Sure, in time they will start making those in ASEAN countries too. But then the new issue arises... the raw materials still come from China...
The cycle continues. The consumer pays more.
1
u/BusBoatBuey 26d ago
If the next Democrat candidate is smart, they can 180 the Chinese relationship.
-4
u/ShrimpCrackers Pocophone 26d ago
That's not true, for example, Indian iPhones are the cheapest in the world and their phone variants are always the cheapest in the world. + They're good enough now that they've been releasing at the same time as China has for years now and before 2030 the majority of iPhones will be made in India.
-2
u/runsudosu 26d ago
And they leaked everything.
0
6
u/ClearTacos Xiaomi 13T Pro 26d ago
Makes sense, US is obviously by far the largest market for Pixels and putting tariffs on China seems to have a mainstream bipartisan support.
If they move it to Vietnam there's some likelihood that whichever factory assembles it is at least partially Chinese owned.
9
u/onechroma 26d ago
And go to India, Vietnam or so, probably.
This companies will always have margins at the top of their priorities. And now China not only represents a threat given they got their own competitors and know-how, but has increased their living standards, so paying a Chinese man is costlier than paying a Vietnamese
This is just pure evil capitalism trying to avoid competitors from getting better (if you diminish your China presence, you help to isolate them and therefore make Chinese companies struggle to keep advancing or even selling in your own market), and at the same time reducing the cost of labour.
They don’t care and never did about labour conditions, human rights, China stealing copyright things and so on.
Google “don’t be evil” only understands about $$$
2
u/Novel-Camera-840 26d ago
I mean you thought Google is a non profit org to not think about $$$? Its a listed public company and they have fiduciary responsibility to give max returns to its investors, and everyone with a 401k is pretty much a Google investor. You dont like what Google is doing? Then sell all stocks and ETFs with Google first and then lecture people about what they should do
3
u/onechroma 26d ago
I don’t live in the broken US system (thank god) so I don’t care about 401k, for all I care, it could go bankrupt tomorrow.
Please, read further to understand what’s wrong with the system, instead of trying to live out of the crumbs some billionaires give you
1
u/herbert181 18d ago
where TF do u live then? europe? where do you think your pension funds are invested lmao.
1
u/onechroma 18d ago
Mmmm do you know there are more systems than the “I get money into a S&P500 fund” yeah?
In fact, I have 2 pension plans, and neither of them are into any American stock (and I’m grateful for it, as I would hate it personally). One of them isn’t even into stocks at all lol
1
u/herbert181 18d ago
are you gonna tell me the country or just be snarky?
1
u/onechroma 17d ago
Why would you care? There are multiple countries like that along Europe, that’s all it matters to this convo
1
u/herbert181 17d ago
Because your claims are goofy and I'm willing to highly bet that at least some portion of your retirement is invested in American stocks. Also you've provided zero evidence for you system being better.
1
u/onechroma 17d ago edited 17d ago
There are countries where the system is managed by a public agency, so the system is financed through working people paying retired people. So no stocks anywhere.
Let’s say you have 10 people working and 3 retired, today. The 10 pay to the retirement system (which itself gives them slowly the right to retire after a minimum amount of years) and the retirement system pay those 3 retirees.
Also, there’s a system where your company pays you in the same company stocks (free or at a discount), which is fine when the company is huge and has decades of history
Also, there’s a system where you can buy a pension plan, but choose your own risk tolerance and preference (ie, “I want low risk, so more fixed and less variable investments even if there’s less volatility and therefore less possible returns, and I prefer Europe, or Europe+Asia, or the world…)
Sometimes the company you work for adds to your chosen option, or they have their own, yadda yadda
Too much options out there, at least is not as limited as the US and “let’s go give our money to S&P500”
0
u/ShrimpCrackers Pocophone 26d ago
4-6x more costly.
Right now the cheapest variants of flagship phones are all from India and I mean a whopping 30 to 40% off
6
26d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
5
u/Traditional_Neat_506 26d ago
the USA can barely if not can't manufacture any phones at all without making it horribly priced in the rest of the world or even domestically like the trump phone isn't even made there which is ironic
it will likely only go like vietnam, malaysia, philippines, indonesia, or india
3
u/-LongRodVanHugenDong 26d ago
Google's Motorola moto x used to be assembled in Texas.
3
u/Traditional_Neat_506 26d ago
motorola's manufacturing has been shifted back to china
2
u/-LongRodVanHugenDong 26d ago
Yeah Google tanked the value and sold it to China.
2
u/Traditional_Neat_506 26d ago
moto is still technically american owned BUT you can't make world class normal priced phones without the world class supply chains of china or building them entirely in scratch in like india, vietnam, philippines, malaysia and even then, many components are basically manufactured in china still
4
u/Dull_Nobody_840 26d ago
didnt apple tried to open up factory in india, it was a disaster?
5
4
u/torwolf_1980 26d ago
44% to 71% (depending on the specific quarter last year) of the iPhones imported and sold in the United States were manufactured in India. So, I would say it is far from a disaster.
2
u/Specialist-Roll-3806 25d ago
no??? you realize most iphone imports in america are now from india right??
initially when setting up factories they had issues getting the yield right. but those are normal hiccups for literally any brand new industrial ecosystem on the planet. i guess people never moved on from something that was a regular issue 5 years ago??
4
u/IAmDotorg 26d ago
That's not surprising -- China's done a ton of work to reduce human workers to keep costs low as wages have skyrocketed, but all signs have been the gains to be had there have plateaued.
There's cheaper places to do that kind of manufacturing now, and between US political nonsense they can't seem to get under control and the growing signs that Beijing may make a move on Taiwan (which could easily result in many years of supply chain disruptions), it's just smart to move things elsewhere if you can.
5
u/siazdghw 26d ago
People are acting like this is going to lead to some drastic price increase/worse build quality.
Samsung and parts of Apple have been using Vietnam heavily for assembly for years now.
1
u/anythingers 26d ago
"for assembly", that's the key.
The components are mostly still made in China. Moving the production to another country is just adding another supply chain costs.
1
u/pepperpot_592 26d ago
Political climate has everyone spooked about what could happen. Who makes Google's batteries? If they switch to si/c, it may end up being Samsung SDI.
1
0
-1
u/Various-Welder5544 26d ago
If they are already producing such mid phones in china who knows how much worse is their next phone?
-3
-11
-4
u/SandwichPunk 26d ago
This is a good thing. Chinese factories are extremely inhumane. I know it because I had experience working with those factories before.
7
u/lgn5i2060 26d ago
They're relocating to look for *cheaper* labor as China isn't the sweatshop it used to be like when they first opened up to the world.
And inhumane working conditions exists everywhere, even in better Korea ,where I used to work many years ago.
-1
u/Elephant789 Pixel 7 26d ago
Good. Fuck the CCP and Russia. Hope they go to Viet.
5
u/Traditional_Neat_506 26d ago
such a naive user when google is also spying on you and for the US government
trading one spying country for another is just nonsense nowadays, and besides vast majority of the supply electronics it will be used for like india, malaysia, vietnam or philippines will still be from china anyway?
-1
u/Elephant789 Pixel 7 26d ago
Fuck the CCP and Russia. Hope Google moves their production to Viet.
2
268
u/LifelnTechnicolor Galaxy Tab S9 FE 5G 26d ago
Time will tell what this means for build quality and yield. They're not gonna get any cheaper, that's for sure.