Apple Computer Closes Elk Grove, Calif., Plant (235 jobs)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8430252.htm?1c

Apr. 14 - Apple Computer Inc. closed its Elk Grove assembly plant Tuesday, eliminating at least 235 full-time jobs and an unknown number of temporary positions, cutting out the core of what used to be one of the brightest stars in the region's high-tech constellation.

The plant that once churned out Apple's candy-colored iMac computers and other products opened with great fanfare in 1992; it once employed as many as 1,500 workers.

Apple officials confirmed the shutdown but refused comment beyond a terse statement saying manufacturing is being moved to an unidentified Southern California supplier. The statement said other operations will stay in Elk Grove, but it wouldn't identify them or say how many workers will remain.

...more...

that's in my area! :-(

unidentified Southern California supplier. Is he based in China?? Just asking!!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

wonder how this will impact the area?

and i dont think it's going to have a huge impact on the town, many of the employees live in sacramento, and we also have way more bay-area relocations people than we can handle.

And several of our neighbors got their pink slips yesterday. The impact will radiate thru Elk Grove merchants too... less dollars spent by those Apple employees right here in town.

Make no mistake, these Apple employees losing their jobs is a big deal, and not only to those who are now unemployed as a result.

*edited for speeling

for apple, he has survivor's guilt today.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=420

In the two weeks following Apple's announcement that iPod mini worldwide availability had been pushed back to July, neither Apple resellers nor the company's retail stores have received a shipment of iPod minis, various sources tell AppleInsider.

"Up until the availability warning we were receiving small but staggered shipments of the minis each week," one reseller said. "Immediately after posted the warning, shipments stopped cold."


Earlier in March, iPod mini customers began to discover a major design flaw with the iPod mini's headphone jacks. It appears that the jack's connection to the main system board is extremely poorly engineered and routine use of the player will wear the connectors and cause static after around 35-40 days. In some instances reported at the iPodLounge, users began experiencing problems after only two weeks of constant use.


..... end more at AppleInsider

Oh, the minis are built in China....... And oh by the way today they posted their 2nd quarter profits.

"Apple said that it shipped 749,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, up 5 percent from the year-earlier period, and 807,000 of its popular iPod digital music players, an increase of 909 percent from the year-earlier quarter. iPod unit sales also rose from the December quarter, which includes the Christmas holiday shopping season."

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040414/tech_apple_earns_2.html

Sales up almost 1000% from a year ago! Sales in the last quarter up from the last quarter last year (which included Christmas)!

Wow.

"Apple's retail stores had another strong quarter, Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson in a telephone interview. Apple's stores enjoyed revenue of $266 million, almost double the $135 million a year ago."

(from the same article)

I thought I read that they expected the stores' revenue not to do that well for a couple years.

Yah, right.

:puke:

Apple has outsourced all their worthless shit to the lowest bidders in Asia,

The last few years the quality of macs has gone straight to hell, we had to return more than half our eMacs and almost all the G4 towers have been in for some sort of service. We also have a few powerbooks that had to be taken apart because the hinges were installed incorrectly.

Oddly enough, 9 years out, our Power Mac 7200's and 9500's that were bought in 1995 are still going strong with only two 7200's dying and zero 9500's dying. We even have a 14 yearold Mac Classic that is not only still going strong, but still has its original factory install of System 7 on it. We used Mac OS X for about a year, and it had to be re-installed every few months, those systems have gone back to 9.2

I used to like macs, but Apple quality control and tight budgets have made keeping them too much trouble, It will take a few years, but we won't be buying anymore new macs.

Both running OS 10.3

I agree with Ashamed American.

Earlier this year threats of a class action suit forced Apple to stop denying problems with its dual USB iBooks, which are prone to logic board failures. (The more recent G4 iBooks seem to be OK.)

eMacs are notorious for video problems, too. And now there's the problem with the mini iPods. It all depends on the line. For instance, the flagship Powerbook and the iMac line consistently rate high in consumer satisfaction.

If you shop wisely within the Apple catalogue, you'll be able to enjoy the best operating system in the world--the easiest to use and the most consistently reliable. But not all Apples are created equally. Do your research first.