Sort of. I feel like it’s a technical education thing.
The fellow in Shenzhen is probably getting paid hundreds of dollars per month. (Just a guess, I know SZ is expensive, but has lots of labour coming from outer lying areas).
Even if it cost 10x labour for the procedure of turning a 16gb iPhone into a 128gb, it would be worth it.
But I don’t think you could train the average Western worker to become a BGA solder worker and reflasher and have them work for you for more than 6 months before racing to a higher paying job.
This. I worked at a small cell phone repair store. We could replace lots of parts in say an iPhone 7, but nearly no soldering. Parts are relatively cheap (lcd might be 35$ for the 7 when I was there) - and we were only paid up to 12/14$ an hour (that's nearing McDonald's level).
There is little proper education for something like BGA soldering, and if there is then you're more likely to get a job as an engineer.
The fellow in Shenzhen is probably getting paid hundreds of dollars per month. (Just a guess, I know SZ is expensive, but has lots of labour coming from outer lying areas).
Even if it cost 10x labour for the procedure of turning a 16gb iPhone into a 128gb, it would be worth it.
But I don’t think you could train the average Western worker to become a BGA solder worker and reflasher and have them work for you for more than 6 months before racing to a higher paying job.