“In a speech yesterday Donald Trump said he would impose an import tax of 35% on goods such as Apple’s iPhones,” Chuck Jones writes for Forbes. “Without getting into the politics of this lets examine this from two angles: the increased price of an iPhone and the logistics of building iPhones in the US.”
“Assuming that 40% of the 231 million iPhones that Apple sold in fiscal 2015 went to US consumers it would have cost them $6 billion more per year than what they paid if there was a 35% tariff and the iPhones were made overseas,” Jones writes. “One of the main challenges to bringing Apple’s iPhone production to the US is the sheer number of people required to assemble them, manage the processes and supply the components.”
“I believe Hon Hai has 1 million people in China dedicated to building iPhones,” Jones writes. “While Apple would probably develop a much more automated production line in the US (and is probably working on that in China) I believe it would be very difficult to find the number of people required to do this in the US.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The United States does not have the infrastructure or the labor force required to support the assembly of 100+ million iPhones per year, not to mention the manufacture of disparate iPhone components.
“Those jobs aren’t coming back.” – Steve Jobs, February 2011, when asked by U.S. President Barack Obama why iPhones aren’t made in America
“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries. We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.” — Anonymous Apple executive, January 2012
“The entire supply chain is in China now. You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours. — Anonymous former Apple executive, January 2012
SEE ALSO:
Trump: We’ll get Apple to manufacture ‘their damn computers and things’ in the U.S.A. – January 18, 2016
Robots, not people, led Apple to make new Mac Pro in the U.S.A. – January 21, 2014
Former Reagan staffer: Apple has an obligation to help solve America’s problems – April 3, 2012