sony shutting down cto factory in San Diego

Didn't see this posted here.
for those interested:
read: Sony Shutting Down VAIO CTO Factory In San Diego | Sony Insider

 

maybe sony vaio z made in china is coming soon .

 

Figures, the early Z series VPCZ11 was originally assembled in San Diego, and if you look on SonyStyle USA, Under Vaio Z > Explore Details > Specifications there's this box that says lists the "Environmental Facts" of the Z and it still says custom units made in San Diego... but since the VPCZ12, they've been made in Japan...

 

"Made isn't really made"...all they did in SD for Z was insert SSD and RAM per the customer order. Everything else was/is made overseas.

 

I guess "assembled" in SD, the bottom of my Z does say "Made in the USA with foreign components"... I just hope the rest of the parts came from Japan , but since they're mostly Samsung, probably korea...

 

my z made in Japan so i hope it japan. Other though, i think so many part are com from China since China is the biggest factory of the world lol.

 

I think it's unlikely that Z will be assembled in China, although not impossible. Sony made it clear before they are separating the high-end and low-end, so I think they would concentrate the CTO of high-end ones like Z and X in Japan while other CTO flow to China.

The potential upside for this is that you would probably get a better chance scoring one clearance CTO unit in SonyStyle outlet, assuming the CTO process will now be a little bit longer and cancellation between the order and shipment may become a little more.

 

It really doesn't matter (outside of patriotism) where things are "made". Chinese manufacturing capabilities are incredible these days. Even if Sony moves manufacturing, it's very different than having the machines DESIGNED in China. That area is where China lags big-time. Some of the most elegant and intricate devices out there are built in China (iPhone 4, etc.).

Most electronics these days are designed/tested in Taiwan and built in China.

 

I beg to differ. China is also the biggest manufacturer of crap, like melamine-infused milk and lead-poisoned toys. Yes, they are capable of manufacturing high-tech stuff. But they are just as equally able to manufacture utter crap. China is 1.5bln people. To assume that every single one is capable of performing precision manufacture is unwarranted - especially if you compare rate of education/specialization per capita with that of Japan/Taiwan/Korea.

You simply have no idea of how much crap they sell to other countries that are not part of the West, like former Soviet Union, Middle East, Africa and so on where regulation is very lax and easily bypassed with bribes. In fact, since China was able to sneak poisoned products even to the US shows just how little they care about the overall quality of products: in general, the West receives primarily showcase production while refuse goes to everyone else, and that trend is changing, as China dumps more and more crap to the West as well.

 

I would have to agree with Anzial (though maybe not as a heated response).

China isn't even a nation capable of feeding its own populace. Corruption in the highest of levels (ie, bribes being notable). And education; probably no more than 50% of the population getting a decent education to Western standards.

It's a sad fact but the Chinese ARE poor designers, leeching off other existing companies and their form-factors (ie, the iphone). You could go onto eBay and search MDR-V900HD (those are high-end Sony headphones), and will come across US$50 pairs, the majority coming from China's industrial districts. The thing is, those in their authentic / genuine form retail for US$300+. Which is why I bought myself MDR-Z900HD (identical ones, just made in Japan).

As a Korean myself, I see China growing, but not essentially in the right places.

And @Achusaysblessyou
Samsung has been outsourcing RAM manufacturing to China these days (I was surprised it wasn't Taiwan). I'm guessing a contract with Foxconn was quite a substantial amount cheaper. I wouldn't be surprised to see Samsung SSDs being built in China today as well.

 

I could go on for hours here. First, I have quite and idea of how these things work. I have been in foreign manufacturing for nearly 20 years.

Fact is they can mauifacture nearly anything perfectly. The "crap" is due to poor engineering and design.

Secondly, much of that waste comes from other places, we are one of the worst offenders of said waste.

I have probably been to china as many times as you have read about China For you to comment that i have "no idea" couldnt be any less accurate. I will happily take this conversation offline with you.

 

Foxconn is a Taiwanese company...or did you mean Foxconn was substantially more expensive?

 

Foxconn engineers and designs in taiwan. They build mostly in china.

 

As beaups says.

Foxconn is a Taiwanese company, running its factories in the industrial sectors of China.

They assemble and build pretty much for every company you can think of, and they've had their fair share of dramas the past two or so years. The so-called suicide from that leaked iPhone4 being an example. And crap working conditions from, 'apparently' corrupt factory managers who try and hide alot from the West; big-shot companies don't usually try and investigate such allegations due to the finacial repercussions that can ensue from lost contracts, shareholders being unhappy etc etc.

I'm not too sure if Beaups will agree with me here, but this is my last comment in regards to China and their way of doing things (I too can go for hours) so bear with me.

If China was to start working and doing stuff to Western standards, with all workers having equal and ready access to human rights and fair pay as we luckily have in Western countries, China will go bankrupt within a matter of weeks, period. Such drastic change will not affect just the industrial sector but the every-day civilian sector as well. And the inevitable price hikes on us, the end-user / consumer. And finally, companies will pull out and start assembling their own stuff in their own countries as the price differences will be pretty much become no-different (heck, I know Samsung will since they only recently started outsourcing from Korea). In the end, manufacturers outsource and make things in China since it's cheaper there, all 'thanks' to the cheaper value of labour that China is known for, as described above.

Though getting back on topic. You have to wonder WHY they shut the SD factory. Might be an after-effect of the financial crisis.

I'd be curious to see what the newer, Chinese CTOed machines come with in regards to RAMs (and SSDs to to a certain extent). I know for the VGN-Z, they stuck in 1x MICRON (aka Crucial, an American company) RAM sticks when choosing 4GB in the States, whereas in Japan they stuck with 2x ELPIDA sticks (a Japanese company). They might go for SAMSUNG now since those are being made in China these days..?

 

^I agree with most of your comments.

I will say that whenever we have these arguments "if the Chinese made competitive wages manufacturing would move to the USA....if the Chinese didn't cut corners manufacturing would move to the USA", I don't agree.

USA doesn't have a large enough pool of available labor. And in our smaller labor pool, I'd argue that we have an even smaller pool of people willing to do this type of work. With all those people in China, there is quite a labor shortage already. Further, our policies of trying to take care of everyone make it even harder to fill these positions...e.g. Why work for minimum wage in a factory when you can collect unemployment or welfare instead?

China is long overdue for some currency correction, and wages are rising pretty quickly over there too. While this accomplishes some equalization by making other areas of the world more competitive and (hopefully) slowing China's growth a bit, I'm not real sure what it does for the US (outside of increasing the costs of our gadgets).