Making of an Android Tablet Video Puts Things in Perspective

[dgstorm]

[video=youtube;AfyAjkPIYyc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfyAjkPIYyc&feature=player_detailpage[/video]​

An interesting video was posted up on YouTube that shows the assembly process of a typical Android tablet. An assembly line of mostly young chinese girls diligently build about 4000 AllWinner Boxchip A13 Android tablets a day. That's a pretty amazing number of tablets to crank out and that is just for a little $55 dollar tablet that most of us have never heard of and may never even see in the United States. Watching the video might make you appreciate your job a little bit more, (assuming you are not in a similar field) as it appears very somber and repetitive. It's amazing to see how young the workers are that design our gadgets, and you also get to see part of their "quality control" testing process. The girl banging on the desk is likely testing the microphone recording capabilities of the device.

It's easy to assume that robots assemble much of the technology in the world, and although that may be the case with some devices and more in the future, as this video shows, that is not actually the case with tablets currently. You can see more of these same types of videos at the source link below. Share your thoughts in the forums.

Source: ArmDevices.net

 

[johnomaz]

I don't know if you can really guage their age from the video. Sure, they look young, but so do many asian people. I'd guess the youngest is 16. But if you think about it, how many 16 year olds do you see working at fast food places? Its basically the same job. Making burgers is just an assembly line and you rinse and repeat over and over again. Obviously there is no telling how much they make or now many hours they work though.

 

[pinoy_92]

if i have to guess, i would say the youngest worker they have is between 10 to 12. mainly because poverty is still widely common in asia and it is cheaper for the companies to replace a slow worker than a defective computer. there is an article about this a few months ago.

 

[geoff5093]

What is the girl banging on the table when she is testing the tablet? That would get annoying real fast, lol

 

[liftedplane]

What is the girl banging on the table when she is testing the tablet? That would get annoying real fast, lol

watch what she does, it looks like she records the banging then hands it to the girl next to her who plugs in her headphones, then listens making sure the microphone works.

maybe you should read what's posted under the video, dgstorm said as much

 

[Jeyman]

Im sorta shocked by how much older some of them are. Ya it sucks for the younger ones who wont go to school but on the good side many of them have a job that will pay them and help their families along.

It's a double edged sword really, every country deals with this as they develop all we can hope for is in time the work force gets smarter and more educated much like like rest of the developed world. Many of us are lucky and did not have to be part of this growth that happened in our past. We did not have to see it till now; thanks to the internet we get to see a current view of what our grandparents had to do in the past.

It sucks but in 20~30 years it will move onto the next growing nation and Asia(most of it) will have a workforce much like the West does today.

 

[dgstorm]

The scary thing is that eventually all of those types of jobs will be handled by robotics, yet the world will also have a whole lot more people needing jobs. The question is, will industry change enough that there will be new and different jobs for those extra people that have been replaced by robots?

 

[meishkov]

I like that one at the 5:00 mark with the pink dress on or whatever it is, got 4 tablets in front of her, clicking away at each, now THERE'S something to envy! In all seriousness tho yea it always is crazy to see the assembly line in action to that degree. Chinese sweatshops have always been known to be extreme. Looks like they got it a little better off than those Foxconn workers do. That's the problem with robots tho, once they take over that duty, then there's hundreds of thousands of people that would need a job. Its never nice seeing how they have to live like that, **** my job isn't much different to be honest. But for them to get relieved of their duties and not be treated like robots and soul-less beings, machines would have to take over. Double edged sword; they should all be forced to turn into developers:biggrin:
Needs to be a world-enforced law that if your job is going to be taken over by a robot, you must learn to program and crush code. That's the only way we'll end up avoiding a Back to the Future 2 Biff Tannin ruling the world scenario!!

 

[meishkov]

Man those videos on ARMdevices.net are pretty crazy. The Geniatech or whatever its called headquarters, 2nd from the bottom, now that looks like the place where I wanna go to work tomorrow!:biggrin:
Those dudes were straight gettin down to business in the android game, except for the iOS developer, but he was goin to town as well. I couldn't even tell if he had like a handheld camera or like a hidden camera and wasn't supposed to be recording anything.

 

[acousticshade]

Really it doesn't look that different than most American factories. It looks clean, they all have decent clothes, the smart ones are listening to MP3 players to help pass the time. The only difference is that they PROBABLY work longer hours and DEFINATELY work for a lot less pay.

Once enough workers get sick of the situation, they will probably revolt just like American union workers did during several times in the twentith century. The problem is in America, the pendulum swung way too far in the other direction during the 1980's and 90's and now there are too many overpaid workers with an entitlement complex.

 

[ragnorok17]

Really it doesn't look that different than most American factories. It looks clean, they all have decent clothes, the smart ones are listening to MP3 players to help pass the time. The only difference is that they PROBABLY work longer hours and DEFINATELY work for a lot less pay.

Once enough workers get sick of the situation, they will probably revolt just like American union workers did during several times in the twentith century. The problem is in America, the pendulum swung way too far in the other direction during the 1980's and 90's and now there are too many overpaid workers with an entitlement complex.

Nobody is listening to to their own mp3 players. Those earbuds are part of quality control.

 

[Xplorer4x4]

It's amazing to see how young the workers are that design our gadgets

I dont mean to nitpick here, but shouldn't this read manufacture? I am no expert but I doubt any one in this factory has anything to do with the design process unless they also do development at the factory which I doubt. The design process is usually handled by some well paid no name in a corporate office I would think. I say no name for the simple fact that if you think about it, the guys who design our phones are artists in a way, but yet if you google who designed (insert phone here) you will probably not find a name or face to go along with the phone. However if you google who designed (insert famous building here), or who painted (insert famous painting) the answer is not hard to come by.

Nobody is listening to to their own mp3 players. Those earbuds are part of quality control.

I dont feel like rewatching it, but I am pretty sure that a select few were indeed listening to mp3 players or some other device. A few were using them for quality control, but not all.