Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about its suppliers. But for the first time, the secretive company has divulged the names of the firms that provide the components for its products.
As reported by The Next Web, the full list of more than 150 companies can be seen on Apple.com, via the company's supplier responsibility page.
Apple notes: "The following is an alphabetical listing of Apple's production suppliers. These suppliers represent 97 percent of Apple's procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of Apple's product worldwide."
The list confirms many of the suppliers that were already widely assumed to be in business with Apple, such as LG, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, among others.
This admission is a new step in transparency for Apple. In August, Beijing's Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs released a 46-page report that claimed toxic discharge from Apple suppliers is causing severe health risks in towns throughout China. As a result, in November, Apple met with several Chinese environmental groups to hear their concerns.
However, part of the challenge faced by these groups in combating pollution is that Apple, at that point, didn't actually disclose its suppliers. Apple confirmed that 15 of the 27 suppliers called out in the August report were firms with which it worked, but would not release specifics. Today's admission could offer help in resolving these issues.
Apple's supplier responsibility page handles various other hot-button issues, such as labor and human rights, worker health and safety, and environmental impact. In fact, these are some of the issues that have invited scrutiny of Apple's practices in the past, like Foxconn worker suicides and pollution in China.
Foxconn was back in the news again this week when a group of around 300 employees threatened mass suicide after they were denied compensation promised to them by the company. Foxconn on Thursday said it resolved the dispute, though the details of the settlement have not been released.