Jul
24
- Chris Braund
- 24/Jul/2010 15:51
Apple has had an incredible year with monumental rises in both sales and profit in the third financial quarter thanks to release of the iPhone 4 and iPad. For the first three months up to 26th June the company’s sales rose by 60% (year-on-year) to £10.2 billion, with net profit up 80% to £2.1billion, but a string of suicides and terrible working conditions have cast a dark shadow over its success.
Since the beginning of the year, ten factory workers have died after throwing themselves off the roof of the Foxconn facility in Shenzhen, China. Worth note is that the factory also produces products for Dell and HP as well as Apple.
Given the potential branding damage, it is no surprise the company is keeping tight lipped about proceedings with Apple CEO, Steve Jobs saying “We are all over this”. Foxconn have since installed safety nets, hired psychiatrists, increased worker pay by more than 70%, as well as stopped the practice of paying compensation to the families of suicide victims.
But should Apple themselves be doing more? According to a survey by makeITfair.com most young Europeans would be willing to pay an extra 10% more for an ethically produced product. If Apple charged an extra £50 more for an iPad I have no doubt that there’d still be queues around the block for it. This along with the fact that wages make up just a few percent of the overall cost of production means that Apple has the ability as well as a duty to act.
But will they? Maybe this is where consumers come in- maybe it’s time we demanded more ethical products.