The change of management at Foxconn's assembly facility offers a surprising insight into the high quality requirements Apple has set for its flagship product. Production lines for Android phones in China only need 100 workers each, while equivalent iPhone production lines need 1,200 workers, according to Michael Chiang, the new iPhone production manager at Foxconn, Apple's largest business partner. Chinese manufacturers are not very picky about the quality of their smartphones, so they are assigning about 100 Foxconn employees to assembly. Apple's much stricter approach to quality control results in Foxconn having to allocate approximately 1,200 employees to Apple's needs. They are responsible for the entire assembly cycle, from shipping and distribution of the components that make up the smartphones to the removal of the finished products from factory warehouses.

Greater attention to all stages of production ensures higher quality and lower error rates, both during assembly and after sales. But it also increases the cost of smartphones, and this figure is critical for Chinese companies that sell their products at much lower prices than Apple. It's a good idea to remember this when you see an Android smartphone that costs less than the iPhone despite having more innovative features.