“Apple Inc plans to move some production of Macintosh computers to the United States from China next year, Chief Executive Tim Cook said in remarks published on Thursday, in what could be a important test of the nascent comeback in U.S. electronics manufacturing,” Edwin Chan and Nicola Leske report for Reuters.
“Cook did not say which Macintosh products will be produced in the United States,” Chan and Leske report. “But the effort is expected to go well beyond simple final assembly of devices, with Apple and unnamed partners building most or all of the components in the United States as well.”
Chan and Leske report, “The company will spend more than $100 million on the U.S. manufacturing initiative, Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, published on Thursday. ‘This doesn’t mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people and we’ll be investing our money,’ Cook said. He told NBC’s ‘Rock Center’ program, in an interview to be aired later Thursday, that only one of the existing Mac product lines would be manufactured exclusively in the United States.”
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote yesterday: Next-gen Mac Pro? With the line’s smaller production volume requirements, it’d be a good candidate and, this past June, Tim Cook stated that Apple is working on professional Mac for “later next year.”
Chan and Leske report, “Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross said it made sense for Apple to bring some manufacturing back to the United States, because some components were already being produced there… Cross pointed to other potential benefits of U.S. manufacturing, including mitigating the risk of intellectual property theft… Beyond the marketing boost, some analysts said Apple could blaze a trail should it prove that American manufacturing of electronics can be profitable. ‘It seems to me like a nice time for Apple to do something,’ Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said. ‘If it can be a profitable business, and others follow, then Apple has shown the way.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Why Apple is bringing manufacturing back to the United States – December 6, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook announces plans to manufacture Macs in USA; says TV is ‘area of intense interest’ inside Apple – December 6, 2012
Maybe they’ll start signing the case interiors again. Pride in workmanship.
Like
No room.
If they can place pictures on a cpu die, they can place signatures inside of a case. But they might be too small to see… 😉
Pride in America would be nice to see since its been waning these past few years!
Would an electric pen be used, similar to the one used by you know who?….
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/08/obama-honored-fallen-seals-by-sending-their-parents-a-form-letter-signed-by-electric-pen/
Go away, unregistered coward!
MacPro is a good bet, it will be at a premium anyway.
Definitely the MacPro… Extremely limited production requirements.
Why not Apple TV?
You are talking about the existing Apple TV? Remember, there is no money in producing large screens let alone producing them in the US. Apple will likely work on a software solution and spend a lot of time and money signing up CONTENT for Apple TV.
You and others says there is no money in producing large screen. I dont agree. Actions speak louder than words. I see lots of TV manufacturers and lots of models and lots of retailers allocating lots of shelf space to sell them.
If you were to say there is no money producing an Apple II or TRS 80 or a PET then I would believe you because actions (evidence) would match your words.
And not difficult to put together. Circuit board manufacture would be the most complex part. Plus it would be easy to make custom orders.
Circuit board manufacturing is so automated. I design a PCB and its fabricated and stuffed and at full scale production in a week by a couple of operators.
++
I agree.
“…in what could be a important test of the nascent comeback in U.S. electronics manufacturing,”
This is very good. Let’s hope the unions don’t undermine this effort. An Apple Insider article says Detroit and LA are possible locations. Yikes!
Arizona would be the perfect place. The police could round up all the cheap labor Apple would need in about an hour.
You’d be the first then 😉
If you really want Multi-nationals to return manufacturing to the US, change taxation from a production orientation, to a consumer orientation.
The higher cost of US labor is greatly reduced by making this change, and eliminates the biggest obstacle to successful US exports.
I would be really surprised if any of this is done in California. California labor laws make employee costs a lot more expensive than other states. I would think Texas is a possibility, as Apple is expanding in Austin.
In the original article from the previous story, there were dozens upon dozens of comments saying how they will now go and buy their first Mac, once they begin this “Made in the USA” production line. I’m not sure how many of those will follow through on their pledge (probably only a few), but this is clearly a very powerful PR weapon for Apple as well. In addition to bringing a few new Mac users (for the sole reason of being made in USA), it will put all other manufacturers on the spot (as everyone else kept saying it couldn’t be done). If Apple can do it, why couldn’t others?
Given HP and DELL margins, manufacturing in the US would kill them.
That could be part of Apple’s plan.
I agree with Leodavinci! I really think Steve Jobs had a long term plan on dealing with Google and Microsoft.
Just like a chess master thinks several moves ahead, I believe Jobs planned his move, anticipated what the opponents moves would be and laid the groundwork for what we see happening today.
Just like the tortoise and the hare story from my childhood. While they keep laughing at you for being slow, saying you can’t do REAL work, too expensive….suddenly they wake up and find out it is they who are in real trouble.
This is a prelude to wholesale government (and other security conscious entities) adoption of OSX. Supply chain security is a big risk to overall system security and with this in check, it will be difficult to remain tied to Microsoft and its Swiss cheese OS.