MBP i7 shipping from Shanghai, China!?

It's common and most, if not all, Apple products ship out of China these days. They are sent air and endure no rougher treatment than if they shipped from California to New York. Don't worry about it at all.

You've missed the boat here - and so has a lot of the USA and maybe the rest of the world. While a lot of design is still done in the USA - these products are all being made (and more and more fine-tuned and designed) in countries like Taiwan and China.

When those countries start to do evn more in-house designing yet still manufacturing the computers (and TV's and LiPolymer batteries and cameras etc. etc. etc)- what are we going to be doing in the rest of the world? Sending eMails?

It's a very different world coming -(real fast) and don't worry about a QA Check - for the past 15+ years nobody who's running a serious production facility waits for "QA Checks" to see how the quality is. Products and processes are well-designed from the start - and "QC" is process quality control - in 99.9% of the cases defects are detected very early; the production line stopped, altered, made right - and production goes on.

Many factories in the Far East today make US (and some other countries of course) plants look like 19th century works.

What worries me is so many of you seem oblivious to all this. Are you living in isolation or what - dreamland?

webmaestro74 wrote:
I finally got a FedEx notice that my 15" MBP just shipped... from Shanghai, China. Why does this give me pause? I'm sure that's the origin of all Apple products anyway, but I guess I'm worried that there is a level of QA-check that will be missing.

It's probably nothing, but in the past I'd always bought from an Apple store. Was quite surprised to see "Shanghai, China" on the FedEx departure location. That's quite a long (and I'm sure rough) journey.

Keeping fingers crossed...

I don't know about every computer but I think it is normal that Shanghai is the origination for Apples bought online. My came from Shanghai as well.

I just wanted to reply right away because I thought your reply was so correct, polite and intelligent! I jumped on my high-horse a bit (sorry) - but you came back with a very nice, calming reply-- have you thought about becoming a diplomat for world peace or something-- seriously I was afraid of your reaction and almost didn't hit SEND - I truly appreciate your comments and politeness.

As to your second paragraph - you know, I'd never thought of that! It could just be true! I've been a MacUser since 1989 (dreamer from 1984 till 1989 but on $7000 gross/year in those days I wasn't buying Macs or the LISA!)-- it is such a magical company in so many ways - Just might be!

Thanks again - now time for a late dinner here in Belgium! Hey, I see you're relatively new to the Discussion group-- welcome and great to have you participating! Everytime I use the discussions (over 10 years - but my first account got lost in some crash...) I learn something neat!

And soon I'll change my Model details-- Just ordered a new MBP 13" after checking them out at the Apple Store in Paris Wed. About 16 Macs since 1989 (still have the SE)-- but my first new one since May 2006 - OK I'm rambling time to cook dinner--

Steve

What about the TIME it takes to ship? China is a fair distance away. And there's the customs issue as well (I'm guessing that products shipping out from China will be delayed at customs for at least a day). So wouldn't that mean that products take a long time to get from there to here?

My iPad, for instance, hasn't shipped yet. They say it'll get to me on April 30th. But that's less than a week away, and I don't see how they could get it to me that fast over such a large distance.

Apple's shipping estimates are usually right on target, if Apple says it will be there April 30th it probably will unless there are some circumstances that Apple cannot control such as Icelandic volcanos. 🙂

Regards,

Roger

In December, my iMac i7 shipped from Shanghai on a Sunday night and I had it by 10:00 AM Tuesday morning. Last week, my 5" MBP i7 shipped from someplace in PA and I had it the next afternoon. Both were FedEx.

Jim

There are 3 general ways to bring in products from overseas; bulk, batch, or single.

Bulk: With long lead times and cheaper products you load a gazillion of them on a ship then clear them at customs. With shorter lead times you put the batch on an airplane but clear the same way. After they clear customs they go to a warehouse and are held until they are ordered by end users (which could be companies or individuals).

Batch: You take a lot of them and batch them into one master shipment which then clears customs together. The products are then broken from the batch and delivered as required by the shipping company. They never hit a warehouse in the USA except for the shipper.

Single: Individual items which clear customs one at a time and are delivered as required by the shipping company.

If you ship a lot of product you can file the paperwork to pre-clear customs electronically. I will GUESS that Apple batches BTO product that ships from Shenzhen and Shanghai and pre-clears it so that when it hits the Alaska Fedex entry point it doesn't wait long. I will also guess that the individual boxes are containerized either at the factory or at Fedex China.

webmaestro74 wrote:
Stephen...

You're right, of course, and I think most Americans are aware (especially those who've lost their US-based manufacturing jobs over the years) that pretty much everything is manufactured overseas... or north/south of the border.

There are still some complete machines still assembled in the US. It's getting rare though.

However, that's not really my issue. I have this crazy notion that products bought from the Apple stores undergo one final check for possible shipping damage or manufacturing defects before being sold. I'm sure that's a false assumption, but it gives me a warm fuzzy nonetheless.

Highly unlikely. Everything comes complete from the factory sealed and ready for sale. The packaging contains everything needed. They won't even think of turning anything on, because most people want their machines to initially fire up just like it came from the factory. All the booklets, packaged accessories, and discs are packed at the final assembly point, and they're primarily produced by local manufacturers.

Apple's subcontractors are established Taiwanese manufacturers like Foxconn, Quanta, and Acer. Personally I think their manufacturing standards were slightly higher when their primary assembly was in Taiwan, but those days are primarily over. They do maintain their own QC personnel at these newer factories in mainland China, and in general the quality is pretty high. Definitely better than most PRC only manufacturing facilities.

I received my MacBook Pro 17" this week two days before its expected ship date. Too bad I didn't like the glossy screen and returned it (waaaay too reflexive and the colors seem over-saturated). I ordered a new one with the anti-glare screen. Hopefully it'll get here just as quick.

The systems IN the apple store all come from Shenzen as well.
I have no concern at all about packaging; and never seen a shipment damaged; they are doing this all the time; as is every single other manufacturer out there.

" I'm sure that's the origin of all Apple products anyway, but I guess I'm worried that there is a level of QA-check that will be missing."

What exactly do you mean? What level of QA is missing? The majority of Apple's products are manufactured in mainland China - this has been discussed dozens of times. I'm not sure why you are so upset about nothing.

Standard builds (the "all defaults" configuration) get spot Q-A. They can't justify checking every product, so they only check, say one in 100. If a problem is found, they stop the line and check a reasonable number before and after the faulty one, such as 10 before and after. This would find any pattern, such as a batch of ICs or soldering errors by someone who came to work with a hangover (not seriously).

BTOs probably get a boot up for all, unless my mind is stuck in the 20th century.

Factories can be in any of several cities in China, but all east coast products leave Shanghai port, China's largest. Shenzhen is very near Hong Kong. It was the target of huge government modernization cash in the decade before HK was returned to China. It is a large port on the south coast. Both cities have a very high standard of living compared with a typical mainland (non-HK, non-Taiwan) location.

In general, people in mainland China find Chinese-made goods that come from factories controlled by western companies (such as Sony, Apple, Nikon, or Hitachi) to be very high quality. They find Chinese brand products much lower quality if not down-right shoddy.