Apple has been named in a lawsuit that legally prevents it from using the word “Apple” as trademark. Apple is also not allowed to use “Big A,” which was coined by Fruit Company because they were an early competitor and felt like their company may be stolen away by name recognition.
The “iphone body manufacturing” is a topic that has been on many people’s minds recently. It is believed that the company behind the iphone, should not be named as it would be unfair to Apple.
TOKYO— It is the most dominating American smartphone manufacturer, a household brand for billions, and for many high-tech component manufacturers, their most significant client ever.
Just don’t inquire as to who it is.
It’s known in Asia as “the fruit company” or “Fuji,” which refers to the Japanese variety of the exact fruit in issue. “The three-trillion-dollar firm,” which significantly overstates its market worth, “the honored North American customer,” and simply “the big A” are among the other labels.
O-Film Group, a Chinese manufacturer of smartphone camera modules, anticipated a loss of up to $426 million in 2021 in a January securities filing. One explanation was that “a specific client outside these limits” had stopped doing business with them.
Which client are you referring to? The inquiry was not answered by an O-Film spokesman.
The Client Who Must Not Be Named, unlike Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter book, does not perform lethal spells or communicate with serpents. Its abilities, though, are terrifying. It has the power to grant — and revoke — contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for electronic components and services.
For fear of upsetting someone or mistakenly disclosing competitive information, suppliers seldom mention the name of the firm they’re addressing in public presentations or even private chats.
The aversion to spelling out the following four letters after “A” is more than simply a matter of habit. Details of a former supplier’s confidentiality agreement with the customer were revealed in a 2014 court file connected to the supplier’s bankruptcy. According to the complaint, the supplier, GT Advanced Technologies, offered to pay $50 million for each violation of confidentiality.
Breach of the agreement was described as not just the typical trade secrets, but also the relationship’s mere existence.
In Tokyo in 2020, a commuter passes by an advertising promoting a new phone.
Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA IMAGES/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma
After a few epidemic months in 2020, it became evident that the normal September launch of smartphones with a stylised image of a partially eaten fruit on the rear would be delayed. Even though no one could say what they were talking about, it was the talk of the supplier world.
An analyst said, without identifying names, during a Broadcom Inc. earnings call in June 2020 that “growth in Q3 from a seasonal viewpoint” would be insufficient. “More detail regarding how we should think about the wireless projected rebound through Q4,” he requested.
Hock E. Tan, the CEO of Broadcom, was instantly aware of the situation.
Broadcom was absolutely building processors for “those major flagship phones” produced by “our significant North American OEM phone manufacturer,” he added, adding that he understood what the analyst was expressing. He verified that the OEM’s goods are behind schedule. OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer, and it is a phrase used in the business to describe consumer brand-name enterprises.
Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy smartphones are the most direct competitors to the fruit firm’s main product, but the South Korean corporation also provides screens and other components for it. According to sources acquainted with the situation, Samsung staff have given their adversary the moniker LO, which stands for “Lovely Opponent.”
Employees at LO are believed to refer to Samsung simply as “Samsung.”
In 2021, there will be a shop in Shanghai.
Getty Images/hector retamal/Agence France-Presse
According to observers, Foxconn Technology Group, located in Taiwan, has had a long association with the fruit industry and is by far the largest manufacturer of its devices. The client is mentioned just once in Foxconn’s most recent annual report, which is 860 pages long. Only because the list is in alphabetical order does the “big A” appear first on a list of Foxconn’s top clients.
In its annual report, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which manufactures processor and other components for smartphones, cites its ally twice—not as a customer, but as an issuer of bonds held by TSMC.
“One of the important aspects in building customer trust is via the preservation of customers’ sensitive information,” a TSMC spokesperson stated when asked for comment.
The huge North American smartphone manufacturer isn’t alone among global companies when it comes to being picky about its suppliers. It is more open than others in one way: it publishes an annual list of its top 200 suppliers.
In its statement, O-Film, a Chinese smartphone camera module manufacturer, said that in addition to losing business with “customers outside these boundaries,” its income was impacted by issues at a specific “H.”
At the year 2021, a client tries on a set of headphones in a shop in Seoul.
Bloomberg News/Bloomberg News/Jean Chung
“H” was defined by the supplier as a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that had its access to sophisticated chips revoked. It didn’t take a detective to figure out that it was referring to Huawei Technologies Co., which will be sanctioned by the US in 2020.
In 2017, a tour of an O-Film facility in China was led by a visitor who wore a nametag that said “O-Film VIP guest Tim”—no last name or business name—and lauded the supplier’s “amazing, precise work” on selfie cameras. He posted a joyful message on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media network, saying, “Say eggplant!”—the Chinese equivalent of “Say cheese.”
The collaboration came to an end when the US government placed O-Film on a no-fly list. In an odd way, O-Film revealed the news in a securities filing.
One organization that is used to stringent censorship didn’t hesitate to say the name in public. CCTV, China’s official broadcaster, aired approximately a minute of a business news story outlining O-issues Film’s and naming the client who had eaten six times into O-revenues. Film’s Manufacturers in the “fruit chain,” as it is known in Chinese, have been urged by CCTV to avoid relying on a single consumer.
Apple Inc. refused to comment via a spokesperson.
Yang Jie may be reached at [email protected]
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“What’s inside an iphone” is a question that has been asked many times. The answer to this question is that the “Maker of iPhones” must not be named. Reference: what’s inside an iphone.
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