The Cost of a Low Price for Apple

Cheaper Product Costs Can Sometimes Come with a Higher Price

Apple is a large multinational corporation with a well-known reputation as the world’s second-largest information technology company. They are one of the top 10 American companies and one of the most valuable brands in the world. Apple has several different suppliers throughout the world that they partner with for their supply chain. As a well-known company, you might think that they are cautious about who they choose to do business with.

Apple recently admitted that they were doing business with several suppliers that have been using child labor. Apple’s 2013 Supplier Responsibility report exposed that there were over 100 cases of children employed by several of their technology suppliers during 2012. One of the suppliers, Foxconn, is a Taiwanese company that assembles iPad and iPhone products. While is based out of Taiwan, many of its operations are in China. The company was hiring interns who were as young as 14 and were well under China’s legal working age .China’s labor law requires a person to be at least 16 years of age to be working. Foxconn has also had several employees commit suicide due to the horrible working conditions and long working hours there.

Apple has recently attempted to sell their iPhones to different markets who may not be able to afford a $500 cell phone. They have been seeking to find suppliers that were cheaper in order to be able to sell their phones at a more affordable cost. Child labor and poor working conditions were some of the main variables in keeping the costs low with some of these suppliers. Foxconn reported that hiring the underage interns was an “accident” because they weren’t thorough in checking the students IDs and confirmi...

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...ny in order to sustain a good reputation and ensure ethical business practices.

A company’s character traits can enable them to act in accordance with reason. Possessing good virtues is what makes a company or person moral and actions taken reflect those virtues. Apple has possessed some unmoral virtues that have caused them to do business with an unethical company. These traits can hurt their business and could cause the public to no longer purchase from them. Walmart is prime example, when people found out about how they were treating their employees. There are several people who choose not give them business. Apple is attempting to earn trust back from the public by doing what is necessary to turn things around with their suppliers. They have stated that will not tolerate inhumane working conditions or the use of child labor and are becoming more accountable.