Labor costs are a tiny component of the cost of producing a mobile phone. The biggest reason to manufacture mobile phones in Asia is that the size of the Asian consumer market is staggering. The land area you can reach within a 5-hour flight from Singapore probably has 3+ billion people living in it.
“The biggest reason to manufacture mobile phones in Asia is that the size of the Asian consumer market is staggering.”
That is laughable. Companies export their products now, as they have been doing so for thousands of years. It doesn’t really cost that much to freight mobile phones.
“Labor costs are a tiny component of the cost of producing a mobile phone.”
Slave labor, over there, probably isn’t very costly.