Apple Moving MacBook and Apple Watch Production to Vietnam for the First Time

[MacRumors]

Apple is in the process of relocating Apple Watch and Mac production to the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam as part of a broader push to diversify its supply chain, Nikkei Asia reports.

The report says that Apple's supplier Luxshare has begun trial production of Apple Watch and MacBook models in Vietnam. Vietnam is already the home for production of several Apple productions, including certain iPad and AirPods models.

Alongside Apple Watch and MacBook production possibly moving to Vietnam, the report says that Apple is also mulling potentially moving HomePod production to the country. The report noted that Apple's trial production of MacBooks in Vietnam is progressing slowly due to pandemic-related disruptions.

Article Link: Apple Moving MacBook and Apple Watch Production to Vietnam for the First Time

 

[BootsWalking]

A win for Vietnam is a loss for China, which makes this doubly-good news.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Judging by the photograph, TC is loving every minute of it. And he’s probably wondering why chefs are trying to make his products.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Apple needs to let go of China behind. It would be awesome if Apple Watch Series 8 comes straight from Vietnam. 👏

 

[Funny Apple Man]

Finally Apple is making moves on diversifying their supply chain, hopefully they don't just stop there. Vietnam seems more chill than China as well.

 

[zakarhino]

A win for Vietnam is a loss for China, which makes this doubly-good news.

And ultimately a loss for the USA. We need to bring manufacturing back stateside. The "but the devices will cost 100x more" excuse has long term consequences for US sovereignty and economic stability. Additionally that point is addressable via legislation. China are strong because of their manufacturing ability which is rapidly growing. Meanwhile the US's manufacturing ability is crumbling.

I want my Apple devices "Designed in California and Made in USA."

 

[TightLines]

I am loving it… any move away from production being pushed out of China is a good thing IMHO. The comment about Tim Cook’s chefs made me laugh - funny stuff!

It’s also very interesting that none of these mainstream publications that report on these types of things and topics don’t ever disclose or delve into what those highly skilled workers being employed by this very prestigious, world wide company are being compensated; and comparing that to the U.S. based employees. Why are those things never part of the discussion or reporting??

 

[mattoruu]

The picture in this article (taken in 2017) is of a Luxshare factory in Jiangsu, China.

Tim Cook visits the AirPods plant: Apple does not intend to shift production capacity to lower cost regions

Tim Cook visits the AirPods plant: Apple does not intend to shift production capacity to lower cost regions

en.luxshare-ict.com

 

[3Gmatt]

Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea… it’s all good.

 

[Sydnxt]

Designed in California, made in Vietnam.

 

[Funny Apple Man]

It’s also very interesting that none of these mainstream publications that report on these types of things and topics don’t ever disclose or delve into what those highly skilled workers being employed by this very prestigious, world wide company are being compensated; and comparing that to the U.S. based employees. Why are those things never part of the discussion or reporting??

Yeah, I wonder why... 👀

 

[Anaxarxes]

And ultimately a loss for the USA. We need to bring manufacturing back stateside. The "but the devices will cost 100x more" excuse has long term consequences for US sovereignty and economic stability. Additionally that point is addressable via legislation. China are strong because of their manufacturing ability which is rapidly growing. Meanwhile the US's manufacturing ability is crumbling.

I want my Apple devices "Designed in California and Made in America."

This is not a cost issue.

You are correct on China's manufacturing capabilities are far far ahead of any other country, let alone USA. That is not because of manufacturing equipment, but the ecosystem and the specialists/experts that are locally available.

To the decree of China's experts in the specialised fields, there are not many countries that offer a similar concentration of people, including US and EU.

 

[BootsWalking]

And ultimately a loss for the USA. We need to bring manufacturing back stateside. The "but the devices will cost 100x more" excuse has long term consequences for US sovereignty and economic stability. Additionally that point is addressable via legislation. China are strong because of their manufacturing ability which is rapidly growing. Meanwhile the US's manufacturing ability is crumbling.

I want my Apple devices "Designed in California and Made in America."

The US is strong because we're at the top of the value chain for production. Wages in China have risen to the point of making manufacturing much less competitive vs neighboring Asian countries, which is the same reason its not competitive to produce these in the USA either. It's a low-value industry that needs very cheap labor and loose environmental regulations to yield acceptable ROI.

 

[zakarhino]

This is not a cost issue.

You are correct on China's manufacturing capabilities are far far ahead of any other country, let alone USA. That is not because of manufacturing equipment, but the ecosystem and the specialists/experts that are locally available.

To the decree of China's experts in the specialised fields, there are not many countries that offer a similar concentration of people, including US and EU.

Specialists and experts that do not or cannot exist in the USA? How do you think the specialists and experts in China came to be? There is nothing inherent about the Chinese people that make them better at manufacturing. There is not much China can do that the USA cannot from a technical point of view, it's just a matter of where we choose to invest in manufacturing. Population is a factor of course but somewhat irrelevant. USA manufacturing was moved to China because of cost as the companies here wanted to extract more profit at the cost of long term national economic stability. That's not a "cost issue" that's a greed issue. China don't think like we do, they don't optimize for short term economic gain, they optimize for long term stability. We have much to learn from China.

 

[TightLines]

The picture in this article (taken in 2017) is of a Luxshare factory in Jiangsu, China.

Tim Cook visits the AirPods plant: Apple does not intend to shift production capacity to lower cost regions

Tim Cook visits the AirPods plant: Apple does not intend to shift production capacity to lower cost regions

en.luxshare-ict.com

Typical - the article and its headline is primarily about Vietnam, yet the linked article, from a publication based in Japan, has a picture from a facility that was based in China… something that was not present in the article that was on their website. It just so happens this publication is tied to Wall Street by way of managing the largest index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. - a double typical.

 

[zakarhino]

The US is strong because we're at the top of the value chain for production. Wages in China have risen to the point of making manufacturing much less competitive with neighboring Asian countries, which is the same reason its not competitive to produce these in the USA either.

Does not change the fact that so long as we continue to manufacture most of our goods outside of the USA we are damaging our national economy in the long term. The dollar is currently suffering in part due to those decisions coming back to bite us.

 

[ghanwani]

The USB-A to lightning cables I bought recently were made in Vietnam.

 

[Redsoul210]

Most of the series 7s I’ve seen and all the HomePod minis have been made in vietnam for a long while now.

 

[BootsWalking]

Does not change the fact that so long as we continue to manufacture most of our goods outside of the USA we are damaging our national economy in the long term. The dollar is currently suffering in part due to those decisions coming back to bite us.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/news...d-strength-shapes-retail-investors-strategies

https://observer.com/2022/07/strong-us-dollar-impact-american-consoumer-business/

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

Let the exodus out of China 🇨🇳 begin!

 

[Wildkraut]

A win for Vietnam is a loss for China, which makes this doubly-good news.

I would prefer to read “Apple moving Production to USA and EU” and don’t see this as good news.

 

[TightLines]

The US is strong because we're at the top of the value chain for production. Wages in China have risen to the point of making manufacturing much less competitive vs neighboring Asian countries, which is the same reason its not competitive to produce these in the USA either. It's a low-value industry that needs very cheap labor and loose environmental regulations to yield acceptable ROI.

It’s a low value industry that needs very cheap labor?

And just who was the qualified individual(s) to make that determination and judgement for this multi-trillion dollar industry?

 

[Wildkraut]

And ultimately a loss for the USA. We need to bring manufacturing back stateside. The "but the devices will cost 100x more" excuse has long term consequences for US sovereignty and economic stability. Additionally that point is addressable via legislation. China are strong because of their manufacturing ability which is rapidly growing. Meanwhile the US's manufacturing ability is crumbling.

I want my Apple devices "Designed in California and Made in America."

Well, they would cost more because of Apple greediness.

 

[arkitect]

The picture in this article (taken in 2017) is of a Luxshare factory in Jiangsu, China.

Tim Cook visits the AirPods plant: Apple does not intend to shift production capacity to lower cost regions

Tim Cook visits the AirPods plant: Apple does not intend to shift production capacity to lower cost regions

en.luxshare-ict.com

One look at the people in the photo should have made it obvious to the person who chose it…

Typical - the article and its headline is primarily about Vietnam, yet this publication posts pictures from a facility based in China… just so happens the publication is tied to Wall Street - a double typical.

That's the state of what passes for "journalism" these days…

Often makes me wonder what else they get wrong.

 

[Wildkraut]

Yes. It’s sad that these are made in Communist countries. We’re talking about moving from terrible to bad here. Let’s at least come to the free world with products.

But I agree with the poster above that if we brought manufacturing to the USA, the country would be stronger not weaker. Our Dollar would be stronger. There would be a flow of money from other countries to the USA. Our people would have better jobs. We could better afford Apple products.

Until the USA politicians understand the ramifications and loss of IP over the last 30 years by shipping manufacturing to China, executives like Tim Cook will keep doing what’s best for their pocketbooks. Timmy makes way more money if Apple does better now when he’s CEO. This is the problem of companies CEOs worrying about the short term not the long term. With Trump, then Covid, Tim hasn’t learned he just went from China to Vietnam. In times of war, like these even though the USA and NATO Europe aren’t technically fighting in it, politicians need to act to bring our IP and technologies home.

As long there are no laws enforcing it, the greed will drive such Corps. to manufacture products in shady countries like China, India and Vietnam, etc.