“On the back of every iPhone are engraved the words ‘Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China,'” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes for ZDNet. “But could China soon be replaced by America?”
“It’s no secret that President-elect Donald Trump isn’t happy that iPhones are manufactured in China rather than the US. During his campaign he pledged that he would ‘get Apple to start making their computers and their iPhones on our land, not in China,’ and it appears that this prompted Apple to look into the feasibility of shifting production,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “According to sources speaking to the Nikkei Asian Review, Apple approached both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two companies responsible for manufacturing the iPhone, and asked the companies to look into shifting manufacturing to the US.”
Kingsley-Hughes writes, “Let’s put the politics of this matter to one side and examine what we know of the way Apple manufactures the iPhone, what it costs to make an iPhone, how many people are involved in the process, and what the costs increases would possibly be.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of where iPhones or any other complex products are assembled, some of the smartest companies are those whose business is developing/building/maintaining industrial robots.
SEE ALSO:
Apple could make iPhones in the U.S.A. under President Trump, sources say – November 17, 2016
President Trump’s Made-in-America hurdle: Asia – November 16, 2016
Apple assembler Foxconn now has 40,000 ‘Foxbot’ robots working at factories in China – October 5, 2016
Apple supplier Foxconn replaces 60,000 factory workers with robots – May 25, 2016
Foxconn robots better, but still not precise enough to assemble Apple iPhones – December 5, 2014
Foxconn CEO disappointed with current-gen iPhone-assembling robots; next-gen ‘Foxbots’ in the works – September 22, 2014
Foxconn to deploy ‘Foxbot’ robots for iPhone assembly – July 7, 2014
Why Foxconn’s iPhone robots could create American jobs – February 2, 2014
Apple dives deeper into designing and inventing robots, other manufacturing tech – November 22, 2013
Robots made Apple switch to ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Macs – December 11, 2012
Foxconn’s 2012 plan: More robots, no layoffs, zero suicides, new factories – November 22, 2011
Foxconn to replace some workers with 1 million robots within 3 years – July 31, 2011