What does "Assembled in Finland" mean?

embedding-shape 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Stuff gets put together in Finland to form the final device they ship, even if the parts aren't made in Finland. I think a dictionary lookup for "assemble" might help if this explanation did not.

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dghlsakjg 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well, assembly can mean that a pick and place machine is assembling individual capacitors onto a raw circuit board, or it can mean a teenager putting the battery in and putting the battery cover on before packaging it. That’s why “look it up in a dictionary” comments aren’t helpful. We aren’t confused about the word, we are confused what it means in this use because it can have a VERY broad definition.

Pick and place PCB assembly is very different from the final assembly of batteries in terms of who is capturing value and building a reasonable moat. Their sales angle is around European autonomy.

Low wage workers putting batteries in phones is not that, but PCB assembly is much closer to that.

	▲	numpad0 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I don't know anything but I thought it's the opposite of that? I thought pick-and-place machines are like fancier 3D printers, and they can be bought and copied anywhere sufficiently advanced, but low-wage assembly workers are organic AGIs that require multi year culture building and prompt engineering know-hows accumulation to be able to achieve and maintain even usable yield rates and cannot be spun up overnight, especially after a workplace was once torn down. Or am I just spoiled by apparent local regional abundance of cheap roboticists?
	▲	SoftTalker 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Seems much more likely to me that the main board of the phone is assembled in China and the battery and the case, and perhaps the screen are added in Finland. But it would be nice to know for sure.

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nticompass 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I read it as "how much is actually assembled in Finland versus arriving pre-assembled?"

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yeah879846 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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ttkari 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Probably things like fixing the mainboards to the casing, putting in batteries, back covers, flashing the software, running hw tests, packaging etc.

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john_strinlai 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

the pieces of the phone are put together in the country of finland

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nticompass 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, but which pieces are put together there and which are already assembled elsewhere?

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scoot 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Exactly this (when nitpicking the phrasing). Is putting the finished unit in the box "assembly" of the delivered product?

OTOH, I'm not sure how much it matters. Apple products are "designed in California" (which is a bit of a lie to begin with), and very much assembled overseas.

Of more interest is how few units they've pre-sold compared to mainstream phones. I wish them well, but I doubt they'll change history.

	▲	john_strinlai 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		there is a legal differentiation between putting a finished product into a box ("packaged in") and assembling component pieces ("assembled in")
	▲	Steve16384 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		It's almost like a "ship of Theseus" problem. If something arrived in Finland for assembly that could theoretically be disassembled, does the final product count as being assembled in Finland? What even counts as "assembling"?
	▲	reaperducer 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Is putting the finished unit in the box "assembly" of the delivered product? I've seen "Packaged in $country" on boxes before, so I suspect they are two different things. Like food made in Canada that shows up in American chain stores being labeled "Distributed by QFC." There's lots of rules about this sort of thing. Reminds me of back in the late 90's when Wal-Mart was all rah-rah about "Made in the USA!" on all of its products. Then my company bought every employee a Sam's Club membership and the cards were all marked "Litho en Mexico."

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tchalla 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What does their website say?