Apple has historically been ferociously secretive about nearly every aspect of the production of its devices. While some things are known – assembly factories, some component makers, and the like – Apple has long refused to divulge all of the suppliers for its products. Now, however, as part of the company’s Supplier Responsibility program, Apple has published a list of 150 companies that provide components for their products. The list includes a lot of familiar names – Sony, Sharp, LG, NVIDIA, etc. – as well as many that are less well-known.
Of course, this unprecedented disclosure doesn’t mean that Apple has revealed all of its secrets. The list gives no hints about what each company provides for Apple specifically.
Apple’s Supplier Responsibility program tracks the performance of supplier companies in a number of areas, including human rights, worker safety, and environmental impact. Suppliers are expected to follow Apple’s code of conduct, and to allow Apple to offer employees access to a variety of educational programs.
It will be interesting to see the impact of this list on the Apple rumor mill moving forward. Now that Apple’s suppliers are known, determined rumor hounds have more places to go sniffing for information. To view the list for yourself, check out the PDF here.