In recent years, President Donald Trump has urged American tech companies to bring jobs back home to the US, and Apple is one of those companies that has been incentivized to do so. To be fair, Apple has attempted to make its products stateside, such as the 2013 Mac Pro, but a report from the New York Times has highlighted that reason as why Apple might never manufacture its iPhones in the US.
The Mac Pro was announced several years ago and represented a redesign and overhaul of its Mac Pro system. However the launch of the computer was delayed and apparently was due to a single screw. It seems that this is because one of the companies that Apple had tasked to manufacture the screws for the computer could only produce 1,000 screws a day, forcing Apple to delay the launch of the computer.
This is versus factories in China in which custom screws could be produced in vast quantities on short notice. It was later revealed that Apple’s manufacturing partner had to turn to another supplier to make 28,000 screws which were delivered over 22 trips which averages out to be about 1,200 screws delivered per trip. It also involved the manufacturer’s owner to make the deliveries himself to keep up with Apple’s needs.
Basically the report highlights how when it comes to production, China definitely has most countries beat in terms of scale and cost. There have also been reports that Apple could source from other countries in Asia besides China, such as India or even Vietnam in a bid to avoid tariffs. However we imagine that it might be difficult to avoid China completely due it being too cheap to ignore.
Of course this comes at a cost as some of Apple’s manufacturing partners have come under fire in the past for mistreating its workers or hiring underaged workers, but whether this is enough to convince companies to start paying for higher manufacturing costs stateside remains to be seen.
Filed in . Read more about iPhone.