Last week’s Sunday New York Times ran a front-page article titled “How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work.” The piece focuses on why Apple makes its iPhone in China. While the article covers an important subject that’s rarely discussed, it erred in focusing so much on it being a decision Apple made, as if it had other options. In fact, the issue about why so many manufacturing jobs have gone to China has been with us for decades and is not company specific, but an issue this country has failed to understand and do anything about.

The decision Apple made, and that thousands of other companies have made before and after it, is the result of it being impossible to produce consumer technology products in the United States as quickly and as efficiently as in China. While China’s advantage once was its lower labor costs, that’s no longer the primary reason for high-tech products being made there.

China has parlayed its initial cost advantage into creating a huge infrastructure of skilled employees, a massive base of factories and an entrepreneurial environment like no place else on earth.

The real advantage of China is its ability to get a high-volume product developed, manufactured and ready for market quicker and more cost-effectively than any place else. That provides a real advantage in an industry where time to market can make the difference between success and failure.

U.S. companies can engage quickly with a Chinese partner and get a team in place in a few weeks. There’s a noticeable lack of bureaucracy and a willingness of these Asian companies to take risks. China-based companies are capable of scaling up production on short notice and scaling down equally fast, providing great flexibility. It’s not uncommon for a company to begin production of a complex new product in early November and ship a million of them in time for Christmas sales.

In China, there are many companies that already make products similar to those you want, so there’s no learning curve. The companies will engage without spending weeks of analysis, do it on a handshake, and not wait for months to create and negotiate a contract first.

China has a huge resource pool of middle-level manufacturing and production engineers as well as assembly workers who can take a design and bring it into production quickly and efficiently. Their work ethic is strong, and everyone typically works long hours when needed, much like workers do here in startups.

With so many Chinese companies building so many products for so many customers, suppliers of parts and services are all located within one to two hours of one another. That means competitive pricing, quick delivery, local expertise as well as a large pool of talented resources in the region. China’s distance from the United States in no longer a barrier; FedEx and UPS have huge hubs that can deliver a product to the customer two days after it rolls off of the assembly line.

Companies in Asia offer attractive costs by working on slim margins, often of just a few percent. They often offer their customers free or low-cost development services in order to keep their factories busy.

Another article in The New York Times on Thursday focused on worker mistreatment. It was a sensational piece written by reporters with little understanding of the real issues. In my 30 years of working in China, bringing technology products to factories of all kinds, rarely have I seen abuse. Workers flock to cities with factories from rural farm areas where jobs are scarce and pay little. The competition for these workers is intense, and companies compete with free housing, recreation centers and other benefits.

Still, it would be naive to think exploitation does not exist or that people are not abused; it’s just nowhere as prevalent as it’s made out to be. Remember the stories of suicides on the Foxconn campus? When Wired magazine examined the statistics, the suicide rate was well below that of the population at large.

It’s a story that plays well in the media as a simplistic reason why we are less competitive. But it diverts us from facing the real reasons for the loss of jobs, particularly when most of the cost of a technology product is not the labor, but the components that go into it. Labor costs, in fact, are typically about 5 percent of the total cost of a consumer electronic product.

Our country’s lack of understanding is what continues to cause us to fall further behind. The success of China as the world’s manufacturing hub is not only the result of the growth in Asia’s capabilities, but also in our country’s inability to compete. Our labor pool lacks sufficient midlevel workers and engineers. Corporate and government bureaucracies, a short-term financial focus, lack of risk-taking, and legal roadblocks also contribute.

The origins of this problem go back more than 30 years. Even then I found that it was difficult to find U.S. companies to work with me in developing consumer products. Many of them grew as suppliers to the military and defense industries and were ill-equipped to participate in the growth of the consumer electronics industry in the United States. They were trained to earn large profits and work to their own schedule. When requesting help from companies, I would hear back in hours from most Asian companies and in days or even weeks from U.S. companies. Asian companies always seemed much hungrier, and that’s still true today.

The movement to Asia has been led by design engineers wanting to get their product into production, rather than by accountants looking for lower costs.

These are the real reasons more and more companies flock to China to get their products made. What can we do to become more competitive? Next week I’ll offer some suggestions.

In addition to the many other gadgets and innovations introduced this year, the Consumer Electronics Show was a venue for introducing a number of new cameras.

While DSLRs have grown in size and weight — some now as heavy as two or three pounds — customers have become more resistant to carrying these behemoths, which pile on more and more features that few use and make the cameras larger and more complex.

Last year, I reviewed several pocket cameras that took excellent pictures, most notably the Canon S95 (replaced now by the S100) and the Lumix LX5 and its near twin, the Leica D-Lux 5. While they couldn’t match the DSLRs for image quality, they came pretty close in many situations.

This past year, we saw the emergence of what I call the viewfinder pro category. These mirrorless cameras perform similarly to the large DSLRs, but are lighter and have a more compact package. They shed the mirror behind the lens and the bulky pentaprism on top. That enables the lens to be pushed closer to the sensor and to be more compact.

Most importantly, they use large sensors, similar in size to those found in DSLRs. They replace the through-the-lens viewfinder with an optical or an electronic viewfinder. While these viewfinders are not as accurate for framing, they are good enough, and the framing can often be corrected on the computer.

The cameras have a form factor similar to the classic Leicas: a thin, rectangular form with a compact lens protruding from the middle of the front and the viewfinder built into the body above the lens. The cameras are about half the volume and weight of a DSLR. Some have non-removable lenses while others are interchangeable. These cameras typically have a premium look, use more metal in their construction and seem to be durable.

Here’s a first look at the best of these cameras.

Fujifilm X100

This is the camera that set the standard when it was introduced last March. It’s a beautifully engineered camera, solidly constructed of magnesium and machined metal, with a leather-like covering that reminds many of the best classic film cameras. It uses a 12.3MP CMOS sensor (23.6 millimeters by 15.8mm) and a non-removable lens with a wide f/2 aperture and an equivalent 35mm focal length.

Images are superb, particularly in low-light conditions. It has a new kind of hybrid viewfinder that provides both optical and electronic viewing. You can view your scene much like a conventional rangefinder camera or use the projected LCD display, similar to what’s found in movie cameras but with a higher resolution.

The one area where the X100 has disappointed is its firmware. The menu system is overly complex, and there are some odd behaviors, such as the film speed setting shifting when you change shooting modes. Some of these issues have been corrected with a recent software upgrade, but it still remains a little quirky. Nevertheless, most owners have tolerated the flaws because of the camera’s appearance, fit and finish, and the results it produces. Only recently did the long waiting times for buying an X100 diminish ($1,200, fujifilm.com).

Fujifilm X-Pro1

At CES, Fujifilm introduced the X-Pro1. It has a similar form factor to the X100 but with interchangeable lenses. It uses a slightly larger 16MP sensor, a similar viewfinder and an even sharper LCD on the back that’s easier to view in the sunlight. There currently are three lenses, an 18mm F2, a 35mm F1.4 and a 60mm F2.4 Macro. It’s another beautifully designed camera, solidly constructed, but slightly larger in size than the X100.

In addition, it has a specially designed color filter on the sensor that effectively increases the sharpness by eliminating the need for an anti-moiré filter. Its sensor is about the same size as the X100. While I was able to handle it at CES, it’s too early to judge whether the menu has been improved. No price was announced, but I would expect it to be at least $300 more than the X100 with one lens, making it about $1,500.

Canon PowerShot G1 X

Canon’s most recent pro-like compact camera has been the G12, a ruggedly built camera that has evolved over the years, beginning with the G1 introduced in 2000. But it uses a small sensor, the same as in the tiny S95, making it hard to justify carrying a larger package to get similar performance.

The PowerShot G1 X is a major improvement with a sensor six times larger (18.7mm by 14mm) than the G12, an optical viewfinder and a non-removable, 28-112mm-equivalent 4x zoom lens. Its body is made of magnesium, and it’s impeccably finished in a matte black finish, much like the G12. To accommodate the large sensor, it’s about 30 percent larger than the G12. It’s aggressively priced at $799, making it a particularly good buy. If there’s one limitation, it’s that the maximum aperture is only f/5.8 at the telephoto setting, reducing its effectiveness for low-light shooting.

I’m quite excited about these new cameras because they show new thinking and innovation. They’re capable of producing superb results, as good as a DSLR, and their portability makes them more likely you’ll carry them, ready for those special photo opportunities.

I just returned from the country’s largest trade show, the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There were more than 150,000 attendees trying to navigate their way through the narrow aisles that weave among the 3,000 exhibits occupying an area equal to 30 football fields.

Companies come to CES to display their new products, meet with suppliers and customers, and look at what their competitors are doing. The exhibitors come with high hopes, knowing that many of the products will fail, but not theirs, of course. CES provides a testing ground, but a costly one at that, where even small exhibit spaces cost $20,000 or more.

The track record in recent years has not been very good for predicting what will succeed, based on their CES reception. Three years ago, netbooks were the hit of CES, two years ago it was 3-D TV, and last year it was tablets trying to compete with the iPad.

What’s the significant product at this year’s CES? It’s probably ultrabooks, a new category of thin and light notebooks defined by Intel to compete with the Apple MacBook Air. Tablet makers also brought out refreshed products in their second attempt to try to make headway against the iPad.

The ultrabooks from Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell have much improved ID, use premium materials and offer some clever new design twists. Lenovo showed its $1,200 IdeaPad YOGA Notebook that works as both a notebook and touch tablet and folds into several different configurations.

HP showed a sleek new notebook, the Envy 14 Spectre, which uses glass in the lid’s construction, much like the back of an iPhone. The black glass on the outside contrasts nicely with the silver glass on the inside, creating a futuristic-looking product.

Samsung tablets, occupying a distant second spot behind the iPad, received a makeover, mostly by becoming thinner and lighter. Samsung introduced many new models with a wide range of displays, from 5 inches to 10 inches. It’s the “throw it out there and see what sticks” approach.

One product that did make an impact is the Samsung Note being sold through AT&T. It’s a cross between a phone and tablet, with a stunning 5-inch OLED display. Its larger size, with stylus and touch, turns it into an effective note-taker.

As in the past, Apple was not at the show in person, but was there virtually, always on the minds of exhibitors and visitors. At the iLounge pavilion were scores of companies showing accessories for the iPhone and iPad: cases, add-on keyboards, stands, covers, brackets, chargers, and i-this and i-that.

What else was new? Thinner and larger TVs, some using OLED for a more vibrant image, and TV sets in which the display runs almost to the edge. The television that generated the most interest was LG‘s 55-inch flat-panel TV with an incredible OLED display and a very thin enclosure.

Many TVs were shown that can connect to the Internet and have their own cloud and app store. In fact, the most overused word at CES this year was cloud. Even a scanner company, The Neat Co., can scan your documents and send them to its own cloud.

Here’s a smattering of some interesting products I came across.

The xPrintServer from Lantronix is a tiny box that enables an Apple iOS device (iPhone or iPad) to wirelessly print to any printer on the network. The xPrintServer currently supports thousands of networked printer models from HP,Brother, Epson, Canon, Dell, Lexmark and Xerox. Typically a networked printer is one that sits on your Wi-Fi network, using its built-in Wi-Fi, or is connected to a computer that’s on the network ($150, lantronix.com).

One Laptop per Child, which developed a simple low-cost children’s computer several years ago, introduced the XO-3 tablet with a price target of $100. It’s a simple, rugged device with a removable silicone cover and a hand crank to charge the battery (laptop.org).

Qualcomm showed its first commercial e-readers utilizing its Mirasol display technology. The lookalike products, the Kyobo and Bambook Sunflower, are being sold in Korea and China. Both devices feature a 5.7-inch, front-lit 1,024×768-pixel mirasol display and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon processor.

Sony introduced its Bloggie Live, a full HD pocket camcorder with built-in Wi-Fi that provides live online video streaming (sony.com, $249).

GameChanger showed an electronic game accessory that offers a new way to play games using an iPad. The iPad sets on the GameChanger to create an interactive playing surface. Player pieces set on the playfield activate 48 pressure pads that interact with the iPad (boardgamechanger.com, $80).

Novatel’s new MiFi card, called the 4G LTE Verizon Jetpack, adds an OLED display to provide more information and make it easier to use. Also added is support for global roaming.

One of the nicest iPhone cases among the hundreds I saw was the Proof case developed by a tiny company in Los Angeles. It has a beautiful soft-touch frosted finish that has air pockets to cushion it from a drop ($30, proofcases.com).

Parrot, a French company known for its in-car Bluetooth speakers, showed a new flying drone. The Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0 is a remote controlled platform with four rotors and an HD video camera. The company displayed impressive videos taken from a 100-foot elevation above housetops in Paris ($300, parrot.com).

Finally, Belkin, a company known more for making cables and mundane accessories, introduced WeMo, a line of modular home automation products that permits household electronics to be controlled from anywhere using a mobile app on a smartphone or tablet. They also showed a large assortment of accessories for the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab smartphones and tablets.

In spite of Apple’s absence and now Microsoft’s decision to no longer attend, CES will be around for at least a few more years. It will continue to be the town square for the world’s consumer electronic product companies, manufacturers, buyers, analysts and the tech media.

When it does end, it will likely be a result of attendees just staying home because of Las Vegas’ inability to deal with the huge traffic jams and long waiting lines for cabs and buses. It’s becoming too easy to sit in front of a computer and experience the show from home.

his week, I touch on three subjects most appropriate for January: accessories, organizing and getting into shape.

With so much gift giving in December, January is a big month for accessory sales, so here are a couple of items I like. As an iPhone 4 user, I’ve tried dozens of cases. The best I’ve found that protects both the front and back of the phone is the Sena Hampton Flip.

The case is made from smooth, rigid leather and has a flap that hinges at the top of the phone and snaps in place over the screen to protect it. The case is durable, well-finished and maintains the phone’s slimness. It also has a couple of pockets inside the cover to hold business cards and identification ($60, senacases.com). Sena also makes an attractive leather sleeve, the Ultraslim, which adds less bulk than any other case ($30).

The Apple iPad Smart Cover for the iPad 2 ($30 in vinyl and $70 in leather) provides good protection for the display and turns the device on and off, but does little to protect the back and sides. A good alternative that covers the entire iPad is the CEO Hybrid iPad 2 Holder. Like the Apple cover, it doubles as a stand that angles the display. It’s nicely finished in a soft-touch twill pattern on the outside and soft microfiber inside ($50, levenger.com). Levenger also offers an elegant English leather sleeve with sheepskin padding made in England ($129).

For those who want an accessory keyboard, Belkin offers the Keyboard Folio for the iPad 2 that connects via Bluetooth and protects the iPad’s front and back. Unlike some add-on keyboards that use soft rubber keys, the Belkin uses hard keys with a spring mechanism ($99, belkin.com). Another good choice is the Logitech Keyboard Case by ZAGG for iPad 2, which is a keyboard built into an aluminum shell that serves as a container for the iPad ($100, zagg.com).

Organizing

When it comes to organizing my desk, I always seem to be overwhelmed with cables, power adapters and terminal strips. There are two issues to contend with: bringing the cables to where they need to be and keeping them there, and organizing all of the excess wire, the power blocks and outlet strips. Bluelounge, a design company that seems to come up with one clever solution after another, has two products that are very helpful.

The first is Sumo, a weighted molded square enclosure that fits over the cables and keeps them in place. Sumo works much like a paperweight, but stays in place, thanks to a special suction tread that sticks to flat surfaces ($12).

Bluelounge’s CableBox and CableBox Mini are attractive molded boxes designed to hold an outlet strip, several power adapters and all of the excess wire. Simply drop everything into it and snap on the lid. Openings at either end allow wires to exit neatly and connect to an electrical outlet and to your devices. It transforms a mess to a neat box ($30, bluelounge.com).

Fitness

When it comes to dieting, Weight Watchers has one of the most popular plans. I know, as I’ve been on it many times. It has recently changed its plan, as covered in this month’s Wired magazine, to focus on the source of the calories, favoring those items with more protein, fruit and vegetables. But what’s most useful is its app for the iPhone and iPad that lets you track your points utilizing its online database of calorie counts, including basic foods, store products and restaurant menus. It can even remind you to enter your points. While the app is still a little buggy, it’s very helpful. It’s free with a membership that costs less than $20 per month.

The Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale is a clever product that goes well with one’s effort to lose weight. Each time you weigh yourself, the measurements are tabulated online confidentially over Wi-Fi. You can plot your results over time and even receive email reports on your progress. It’s able to automatically detect and privately keep track of the weights of up to eight different users ($160, withings.com).

Unplugging

Each year on New Year’s Day, my wife challenges me to unplug for one day. No computer, Internet, smartphone, iPad, etc. I’ve never been able to do it completely, but it does make me realize that high tech is a mixed bag. There’s more to life than staring at screens.

I wish I could say that high-tech products make life easier, but among all of the products I try, too many end up creating more work, and often aggravation, that’s never compensated by the time savings or simplification that’s promised.

A good example may even be the Wi-Fi scale noted above. Some users will have difficulty connecting to Wi-Fi, making the product frustrating. It’s just the nature of the variability of Wi-Fi routers and computers with so many different home situations. So my advice is: If something is not easy to set up and able to work the first time, send it back and forget about it. Embrace what works and discard what doesn’t. My job this year will be to help you tell one from the other, beginning next week with the Consumers Electronic Show.

As Yogi Berra once said, it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. But that won’t stop me from trying once again. Looking back at last year’s predictions, a number of them materialized: Verizon finally got an iPhone to sell, along with Sprint, and neither suffered from the issue of dropped calls, as on previous iPhones.

As predicted, one cellular provider broke away from the pack to offer a logical, fairly priced, easy-to-understand plan with its all-you-can-use voice and data for a single fee. That company was Sprint.

We saw the introduction of a new iPad 2 and the continued anemic sales of Android tablets, both as predicted. That won’t change for 2012: We’ll see Apple continuing to dominate the tablet market with its higher resolution iPad 3 and a lower priced iPad 2 for $349.

Android tablets, with the exception of those from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble (which use Android underpinnings), will continue to sell poorly. Google will introduce its own branded tablet with some clever new features in an attempt to inject some interest, but it won’t get much traction.

We’ll see an Apple iPhone 5 in the fall with faster 4G speeds, a larger display and a thinner form factor.

Microsoft still failed to make headway with a competitive tablet or smartphone, contrary to my prediction, but in 2012 Microsoft will introduce its new Windows 8 operating system, which should result in thin and light Windows notebooks with touch screens and removable keyboards. It will be the best of both worlds — tablet and notebook — in one package.

I’m less optimistic about the new Mobile OS that Nokia is banking its future on, and I think Nokia will follow the path that Research in Motion is on — heading toward oblivion or be sold. It’s not that Windows Mobile is not good, but it’s years late to make much of an impact.

Solid-state memory is now found on many notebooks, as predicted. We’ll see even more PCs in the thin and light category competing with the MacBook Air. But Apple will expand the Air concept to a wider range of its notebooks, and it will become its mainstream form factor.

The Stop Online Piracy Act, a terrible piece of legislation put forward by the entertainment industry, would allow seizures of websites without due process, something that’s now done in totalitarian countries. And that includes websites where others may unknowingly post links to offending sites, as well. There’s a last-minute swell of protests that I expect, or rather hope, will prevent it from becoming law. If I’m wrong and it does pass, a new underground Web will emerge, free from these regulations, and it will disrupt the Web as we know it today.

Privacy will continue to be a huge issue in 2012, with Facebook sharing its users’ information more seamlessly with friends and advertisers, and using its new timeline feature to remove all semblances of keeping personal data private. But in 2011, it was this same Facebook, along with other technologies such as Twitter, email, instant messaging and YouTube, that helped fuel the overturn of dictatorships, a phenomenon no one predicted. Facebook will go public in 2012 with the largest IPO ever.

In 2012, fewer businesses will take their customers for granted like some did in 2011. They won’t want a repeat of what befell Netflix, which lost millions of customers after a 60 percent price increase from an arrogant CEO, and what Web host provider Go Daddy experienced last week, the loss of tens of thousands of hosted sites after endorsing SOPA.  (As soon as this went to print, tone-deaf Verizon just proved me wrong with a two dollar “convenience fee” for paying your bill on line. And, of course, they had to rescind it a day later due to customer outrage.)

Apple will introduce a flat-screen television that will make it much easier to watch any show on demand through an iTunes-like service. It will be the first effort to provide competition to the cable companies, which don’t allow us to buy just what we want, just what they want us to. It will use Siri, Apple’s voice software as the interface, supplementing the remote control. Think of it as a larger desktop Mac under 40 inches rather than a huge 50-inch display.

Expect to see a continuing shrinkage of the retail big-box stores in 2012, such as Best Buy and Kmart, as more shopping is done online. Last year, I underestimated Groupon’s staying power, and it had a successful IPO. This year it will be the antidote for local businesses fighting against Amazon. And Amazon will face a barrage of lawsuits from sellers on its website, being accused of unfair and illegal business practices.

Sensors and health monitoring will grow beyond today’s capabilities of the Fitbit and the Jawbone GO. We’ll be able to wirelessly connect them to the iPhone to monitor many of our activities, analyze the data and receive recommendations. We’ll see more health devices providing remote medical monitoring and connecting the patient to the doctor over cellular connections.

With the proliferation of e-book readers, we’ll see more pushback on the Federal Aviation Administration and the airlines to change their rules for turning off all electronic devices during takeoff and landing. More studies will emerge that continue to show that the rules have no technical legitimacy.

Finally, which companies will be up and down in 2012? Up will be Apple, Facebook, Google and Groupon. Down will be Nokia, RIM, Sony and Best Buy. Amazon will be both. While sales will grow, it will endure huge losses as it subsidizes its Kindles.

And why Sony? It has yet to grow significantly in any consumer product category, is still losing money on TVs where it once dominated, and saw big slippage in its e-reader business, a category it began. And its strategy announced two years ago to bet everything on 3-D has been a failure.

Lastly, notice how few are questioning the continued success of Apple with the sad passing of Steve Jobs? I think Apple has enough momentum (and products in the pipeline) for two years, but after that it’s a cloudier picture.

Now, there are a few things I wish would come true in 2012. I wish email spammers would just go away, along with pop-up ads and instant surveys. I wish those 6 p.m. telemarketer phone calls would cease, and I wish more companies allowed us to opt in, not opt out to get their email. Lastly, I wish we all, myself included, would think twice about upgrading to the latest revision of every gadget and, instead, use a product until it actually wore out. But we won’t.