I worked at one of the largest electronics company in the world; definitely the one with most revenue and money in the bank. People like to trash talk about this company, because its products are expensive and people think it's products are elitist. Reality is that this company's focus is to make products with best user experience and quality; cost is not high priority. The result is that the products are high quality, but also expensive. It doesn't go about thinking that it will make an expensive product and highest margin; and try to make money off consumers. By the way, assembly is done in China.
For manufacturing, I prefer to have the product made offshore (China, Vietnam, or wherever) instead of USA. Today, process control and manufacturing quality are actually higher in Asian manufacturing than US manufacturing. And the cost of manufacturing is cheaper. Yes, lower cost and better results.
The issue is QC acceptance of company that sells the products. When priority is on sale price and cost cutting, QC is basically is secondary to saving money. And the result is inferior products with high defect rate. And unfortunately many new and upcoming Chinese companies tend to fall into this category. Their value proposition is low pricing.
Why does QC affect price? Let's say factory will make 100 units for $10,000. If all 100 units are accepted, the cost is $100 each. If there are 5 units that are rejected, the cost becomes $105 each. If there are 10 units rejected, cost is $111 each. This is just a simple example. But you get the idea. Higher quality standard means tighter tolerances, less units are accepted, and cost increases.
There are engineering methods to improve quality. Thru robust design, tighter process control, improved tolerances, better machines, etc. But these engineering efforts take time and cost resources, which will add to product cost.
So when Chinese companies' focus is to make low cost products, they accept parts with wider tolerances or even known defects. And these products can have higher failure rates.
What is more important to consumer? Is it cheaper product or better product? There is no straight answer. It is likely a balance, somewhere in between. For headphones and audio equipment with low volume, prices are not cheap and is toward premium side (relatively). So we would expect quality product for premium pricing. But when QC issue occur, there is a deviation from expectation.
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