Do you remember the excitement of unwrapping that new phone you just bought?
Do you remember opening it for the first time and checking out all the features?
Have you ever wondered how that phone came into your hands?

This is the secret life of your phone before it reaches you.

Research and Design
In the fast-paced tech industry where ongoing innovation is the key to success, research and design (R&D) is especially important for any mobile phone company. In 2017, Apple spent around 10 billion U.S. dollars on R&D. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, this includes funding for “products and services that are not currently shipping or derivations of what is currently shipping.”

Sourcing raw materials
With different countries specialising in different technologies and processes, making a phone is now a global effort. Significant contributors include Japan, Taiwan, USA, the Netherlands and Italy. This global supply chain is especially notable in the case of iPhones. Apple sources components from more than 200 suppliers around the world to make an iPhone, creating a complex global supply chain.

Manufacturing
Components from around the world are then sent to one country to manufacture and assemble. For Apple, this is China. At the Foxconn manufacturing site in Zhengzhou, there are 94 production lines and approximately 400 steps to assemble an iPhone. 500,000 iPhones are produced each day, roughly 350 a minute.

Warehousing & Distribution
To supply the global demand for mobile phones, companies need to have warehouses around the world to distribute the products at reliable speed. Phones can be shipped in huge quantities by plane due to the small size of smartphones – cost effectively and time efficiently. On average, it takes two days for an iPhone to reach a store in Shanghai and three days to get to San Francisco.

Arriving at a retail store marks the last destination of your mobile phone before it reaches you. This is the end of the first part of their journey.

 

Photo by Tati Tata via Flickr.

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