Who makes the iPhone? Evidence from a graphical representation of Apple’s supply chain document

by status7942

The supplier document is self-reported by Apple. It is dated February 2018.

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I used a Java program called Tabula to capture any tables in Apple’s supply chain document. With those addresses in a neat CSV file, I used Google’s Geocoding API to derive the lat lon coordinates. To ensure their accuracy, I plotted each lat lon coordinate on a map to see if they returned accurately. For actually rendering the map, I used d3-geo-projection to convert lat lon positions into browser friendly x, y positions. The geojson shape files of the world map come from geojson-mapsThe design of this map is inspired by air route maps. Note that the lines DO NOT represent the actual routes that the intermediate products take from origin of manufacture to destination. That data is unavailable. All we know is that final assembly takes place in Shenzhen, China by a company called Foxconn. In this map, I made it so that the lines are pointed to Cupertino (where Apple is headquartered), since that’s who designs the product and receives the cash flow. It DOES NOT mean that all the parts go to Cupertino for assembly and distribution; again, they go to China.

Given the audience feedback, I’ve made a couple modifications which you can see on the code sharing website: Codepen.

  • Removed the air route lines
  • Centered the map on America
  • Enabled continuous horizontal panning
  • Updated one address which was erroneously reported by Apple

 

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