Apple to Move Mac mini Production to U.S.

[luffytubby]

Originally Posted by 92jlee

Am I the only person who thinks this is pointless as it will be run by foxconn?
Yes, some tax revenue from engineers will go back into the US economy, but will that even offset the tax breaks the govt would have offered to get them to build a factory in their state? The profits of the business will be going first to foxconn (owed by China so paid to China) and then Apple who avoids most tax anyway.
Just seems like a marketing scheme targeted at people who don't understand the basics of economics. 'ohh it says made in the US, let's buy this over that Chinese product over there because we are supporting our jobs'

tax breaks? gief source.

[Michaelgtrusa]

Originally Posted by Macman45

It will be interesting to see how Foxconn handle this. Labor laws in the USA are so far removed from what is considered "The Norm" in China. Workers in the USA are not going to buy into the Foxconn ethos without it's overhaul and modification wholesale. I wonder if this is linked to Apples' so called drive to improve conditions and pay for Foxconn workers in China.

This also makes me wonder if US taxpayers are paying for this.

[CausticPuppy]

You know what would be neat? If the future Mac Mini had two thunderbolt ports and you could daisy chain multiple minis together somehow, with a single master and multiple slaves.... So that you could have a cluster joined by 10Gb interfaces rather than gigabit Ethernet.

Why buy a single huge Mac Pro when you can buy 4 or 5 minis? And add more as needed?

Pipe dreams.....

[rmwebs]

"Designed by Apple in California. Made by Foxconn in Texas"

[the8thark]

Here is my Australian perspective on this.

Apple now has more Non US customers then US customers. And for me China is much closer to Australia then the US is. Less shipping times. And both the US and China need the jobs to help improve their national economies and general living standards of the populations. So it's tough to see if this "made in the USA" is really a good thing.

I'm sure as a US company Apple wants to bring jobs hack to it's home. And the US people should be proud of this I guess. A company with national pride is a rare thing these days. Apple's US customers will benefit from this for less shipping times on their Minis and better peace of mind that more US jobs are created.

But for those Apple customers outside the USA. The majority of them? I believe they won't notice anything new with this. Assuming the build quality is the same as was out of China, we will still get our Minis. maybe a day or two later if you live closer to China, (as I do in Australia). But apart from this, it's really a non-news story for us.

To me the big news story her is not "oohhh a Mac made in the USA". No no. The real news story here "Large company caring about it's own country and trying to bring some jobs back home". It's a nice thing to do and I wish more companies around the world could do the same. Try to employ more workers from their own home countries and not outsource to the cheapest country always.

[Mike MA]

Now bring on some production to Europe - that for one time we get a product before the U.S.

But to be serious, the mostly simultaneous product rollouts in the past (beside the BRICs) are quite impressive...

[thewitt]

Originally Posted by Macman45

It will be interesting to see how Foxconn handle this. Labor laws in the USA are so far removed from what is considered "The Norm" in China. Workers in the USA are not going to buy into the Foxconn ethos without it's overhaul and modification wholesale. I wonder if this is linked to Apples' so called drive to improve conditions and pay for Foxconn workers in China.

Foxconn manufactures all over the world already. They are a very competent contract manufacturer.

[apfeljonas]

Originally Posted by JS3

Surprised apple is still making Mac mini. Wouldn't the price go down if it was made here?

How would the price go down?

[MacDav]

Originally Posted by Umbongo

Do you have a source for that number please? Apple don't release those numbers so I'm curious where you got it from. 300,000 units in a year would be a stretch given the pricing starts at almost twice the average price per unit for desktop sales - which is reported.

You are correct they don't release those kind of numbers. You might notice that I said "about" 25,000. It may be 15,000 or 35,000. Only the top brass at Apple know for sure. This is an estimate based on total computer sales and then approximately what percentage is given to each category. I found this on ZDnet here's the link if you are interested.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/is...-pro-dead/1566

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[QUOTE=anomie;16559502]Yeah, please run Apple to show the world, what Apple is good at:

doing the obvious.
[COLOR="#808080"]


Yeah, so you are the second person to take my comments literally, when it seems quite obvious to me I was joking. I guess I forgot to title my post as "I'm only joking". So much for the obvious.

[Lershac]

[yangchewren]

Originally Posted by 92jlee

Am I the only person who thinks this is pointless as it will be run by foxconn?
Yes, some tax revenue from engineers will go back into the US economy, but will that even offset the tax breaks the govt would have offered to get them to build a factory in their state? The profits of the business will be going first to foxconn (owed by China so paid to China) and then Apple who avoids most tax anyway.
Just seems like a marketing scheme targeted at people who don't understand the basics of economics. 'ohh it says made in the US, let's buy this over that Chinese product over there because we are supporting our jobs'

While this is one way we will see revenue captured and redistributed, we must not forget the positive effects manufacturing (even if foreign owned) brings to any country's economy. This includes supporting other services that running a manufacturing firm would need like health, education, logistics and financing.

[The Wedge]

Originally Posted by MagnusVonMagnum

The new Mac Mini is actually pretty friendly to take apart and upgrade so it should come as no shock that it would be simple to assemble in the USA (not so small that it's hard to work on and not so complex that it takes a lot of skilled worker time at low wages to produce profitably).

As for the Mac Pro, I'll believe that they're going to update it when I see it. They've shown a total callous disregard for the professional market in general these past few years and never once even lowered the price of the Mac Pro even when its was HORRIBLY out of date. Apple sometimes seems to lose all touch with reality. Why even bother if that's the best they're going to do? So what if they update it to modern specs one more time? We won't likely see another update for another 4-5 years....

Desktops are trucks!! 4-5 years is short for a truck!

[Umbongo]

Originally Posted by MacDav

You are correct they don't release those kind of numbers. You might notice that I said "about" 25,000. It may be 15,000 or 35,000. Only the top brass at Apple know for sure. This is an estimate based on total computer sales and then approximately what percentage is given to each category. I found this on ZDnet here's the link if you are interested.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/is...-pro-dead/1566[COLOR="#808080"]

Thanks. His numbers are off by a bit as Apple don't do 1.5 million desktops a quarter; it has been an average of 1.15m during the last 3 years where sales have remained steady in this area.

We'll probably never know exactly, but the numbers do show that it is a low figure and the feedback shows it is sadly in decline.

[dugbug]

This can't be right. The pro is such a logical choice. I wonder if a newly redesigned pro has mini-esque elements that has the supply chain speculating in the wrong direction.

Who knows. Glad to see this happen though

[ChrisNH]

It stands to reason that U.S. manufacturing has collapsed so far, and so much, that Apple only gives us its most basic, simplest, least complex computer to assemble. Anything with a display or complex innards, nope.

[lkrupp]

Originally Posted by JS3

Surprised apple is still making Mac mini. Wouldn't the price go down if it was made here?

It's still much cheaper to manufacture in Asia and ship back to the U.S. Not even close. One of two things will happen, or maybe both. The price will go up or Apple's margin will go down.

For all this talk about manufacturing in the U.S. it still remains that money talks and ******** walks. Most people buy cheap. That's why Android is winning after all, don't you know.

[Chupa Chupa]

Or both maybe since each is a low volume headless product. Kind of how the BMW X3 & X5 are made in the same factory. From everything we've seen so far it's not too far fetched to think the next pro Mac desktop will be much closer in form factor to the mini than the current MP. I can see Apple removing both optical drives. That removes 8" of depth right there before any other space consolidation. I can also see Apple removing two of the HD bays... Maybe sub them for SSD bays.

[Rocketman]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...9&postcount=19

Originally Posted by Rocketman December 6, 2012

I think it would have to be a headless Mac. Either the Pro or the Mini. With Pros made in Ireland I suspect they will honor that and produce the Mini here.

[dlewis23]

Originally Posted by pgiguere1

Twist: The 2013 Mac mini actually is the new Mac for professionals promised by Tim Cook.

If they put a dedicated graphics card back in it for the next update in 2013 then it will be. The mini is really fast, the only thing holding it back is the HD4000 Haswell should make a nice improvement but it should have a dedicated GPU.

[iGrip]

Originally Posted by Ralf The Dog

I dream of a day when there are American companies that are capable of making stuff. (Auto industry excluded.)

The United States makes more stuff than any country in the world, including China. The United States has the largest manufacturing economy in the entire world. But let's not let facts get in the way of a good lament.

[OrangeSVTguy]

Originally Posted by pgiguere1

Twist: The 2013 Mac mini actually is the new Mac for professionals promised by Tim Cook.

Better get rid of the intergrated GPUs then.

[xlii]

Originally Posted by dlewis23

If they put a dedicated graphics card back in it for the next update in 2013 then it will be. The mini is really fast, the only thing holding it back is the HD4000 Haswell should make a nice improvement but it should have a dedicated GPU.

I own the 2012 mac mini. It is really a great little machine but it needs improvement in 2 areas: GPU and cooling. The quad machine is more than willing to take on intensive CPU tasks but the ability to keep the machine cool during those intensive tasks needs improvement. The GPU will take care of itself over the next 3 years. I expect that the integrated GPU will be the only option in the mini for the next several years going forward.

[Thunderhawks]

Originally Posted by mrsir2009

Another can of petrol on the PR fire...

Exactly, a total non event.

The average consumers don't care about where something is made these days.

Price and quality are more important.

To the whiners that it's made by FoxConn, it's only proof that Apple is a smart company.

Why own a factory with all it's problems and having to learn manufacturing?

Foxconn already knows what they are doing, has been their partner for a long while.
They could even just slap an Apple label on the outside of the factory and hire all FoxConn people to run it. Just to appease a few non global thinking people who never in their lives have left or will leave the US ?

[saud0488]

Originally Posted by 76ShovelHead

You couldn't be more incorrect in your assumption

Perhaps it is that you are just unaware of the conditions in these foreign factories.

Just because something was 'imported' doesn't mean it possesses some innate quality unrivaled by any of its domestic counterparts. This stereotype needs to die, and you should be ashamed of yourself not having any respect for our country.

Respect for our country? GTFO. The country has no respect for itself. First by allowing all of our jobs to go overseas by way of unions with their ridiculous demands. Then by building crap products (Ford, Dodge, Saturn, and those are just cars) and then putting "Made in the USA" on it and hoping people will buy into it.

Unaware of conditions? I've seen more foreign factories than you could dream of. And not in China, where conditions are relatively decent compared to the rest of the world. I'm talking about factories in the Indian subcontinent where kids work long days to help support their families without 401k's, paid vacations, PTO, or any of that. They're happy to be able to support their families and that's it.

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Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

You mean like the outstanding quality that has been coming out of China?

I'm willing to bet every single apple device you own is made there. If you don't like the quality then don't buy it.

[Lahmy88]

I'd be very interested to see what other products Apple might move to produce or assemble at home instead of overseas, and how this affects it's share price