Rumor claims Apple Shanghai facility is supply chain center
updated 09:46 am EST, Wed January 30, 2013
Conflicts with multiple reports
The facility Apple is establishing in Shanghai is actually a supply chain management center, not for research and development, a source tells Tencent. Apple is allegedly hiring supply chain management experts for the project. Tencent moreover claims that Apple China's marketing department has denied the Shanghai facility being for R&D, and stated that CEO Tim Cook didn't promise an R&D complex while he was in the country earlier this month.
Tencent's account may conflict with a China Business News report from Monday, which noted that one building would be used for procurement management but also R&D, and based its story on documents from the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce. At the time, Apple PR refused to comment. Tencent itself earlier claimed that Apple was developing a Beijing R&D center, and that Cook had told the city's acting mayor about the plans.
