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Apple Plans to Repurpose Mesa, Arizona Sapphire Plant to Preserve Jobs

How about turning it into a small off site factory for building more iPhones. Isn't that what they have been complaining about, the production not meeting demand?

Imagine, buyng an iPhone that was assembled in America. Go Apple!
 
!!

I seriously had to double-take the post title! "Jobs" was even capitalised which added to the shock!!! :) Even better, I momentarily thought "well, they've got the money to do that...". I'm so stupid!!! :rolleyes:
 
theanimaster said:
Sounds like it was Apple's plan all along, from reading up on the whole story. Apple forces GT to make rushed decisions and then sets up the stage for their demise.



I wonder though. Is it going to cost Apple less with this strategy? Perhaps they wanted to set up a manufacturing/assembly plant there in the first place but figured that it'd be cheaper to get a company to build the buildings and have the city put up the power plants and then BOOM -- convert it all.



Nice move Apple. I'm impressed. A little more and you'll be wearing the same perfume that Samsung wears.
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Are you, somehow, under the impression that GTAT built the building they were using? Several articles have clearly stated that the building was supplied by Apple for GTAT's use.
 
winston1236 said:
Exactly. All the debt is discharged by the previous company and Apple gets everything for pennies on the dollar while being praised for 'preserving jobs'.
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Chapter 11 bankruptcy actually works just the opposite. The company filing for reorganization (GT here) settles its debts for pennies on the dollar. Typically secured creditors are the one's who get paid back a sliver what is due them while the unsecured debtors end up with nothing. This is not 1900 and Apple is not a "Robber Baron" company. The Robber Barons are the reason we have the bankruptcy laws we have. Bankruptcy is not necessarily a corporate death sentence. Often it's the opposite; a way to escape the noose.

Apple loaned GT $350 million for the plant they are now repurposing. It did not want the building, it wanted it's loan repaid, which is why it tried to call in the loan when it saw GT's cash reserves on an accelerated burn. It's going to cost Apple hundreds of millions to "repurpose" the facility for something they never planned on owning. Lose-Lose for GT and Apple here in that regard. But Apple didn't want to lose its entire investment and GT didn't want to have to liquidate so each took the best option in a bad situation.
 
kingofwale said:
so.... essentially if you learn to read behind the propaganda...

Apple bankrupts a company and then takeovers it?
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No. Not even close.

According to *several* of the prior articles on this topic, the *facility* has always belonged to Apple, it was equipped, staffed, and run by GTAT. Now that GTAT has abandoned the project which *was* taking place in this facility (along with the associated employees), and will be selling off the equipment in order to repay its debt to Apple, Apple is looking to re-purpose the facility so that they can avoid losing a bunch of cash on the building, and keep those employees *gainfully employed*.
 
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I applaud Apple for their efforts on this....

After all, Apple is one of the few American companies that talk about bringing jobs back to America...

And I would applaud a lot more if they can please speed up this process...
 
There's a major flaw in the title of this story and the tone.

Look at the sign out front. GT Advanced owns the building! HAHA!

I don't see an Apple sign anywhere. This is what proves my double standard theory. Apple clearly has as much blame in the loss of those jobs as GT does and they know it. Both companies made mistakes. This notion that it's all GT's fault is just bunk.

In the end, the bankruptcy judge will decide the fate of the facility, not Apple or GT. Apple can't just go in there and start assembling Mac Pro's or something like this story leads you to believe.

APPLE DOESN'T OWN THE BUILDING!
THIS IS ALL APPLE PR FOR THE FANBOYS!
 
HyperZboy said:
There's a major flaw in the title of this story and the tone.



Look at the sign out front. GT Advanced owns the building! HAHA!



I don't see an Apple sign anywhere. This is what proves my double standard theory. Apple clearly has as much blame in the loss of those jobs as GT does and they know it. Both companies made mistakes. This notion that it's all GT's fault is just bunk.



In the end, the bankruptcy judge will decide the fate of the facility, not Apple or GT. Apple can't just go in there and start assembling Mac Pro's or something like this story leads you to believe.



APPLE DOESN'T OWN THE BUILDING!

THIS IS ALL APPLE PR FOR THE FANBOYS!
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Probably 90+% of the commercial property in the US does not belong to the company who's sign is on the building.
 
MasterRyu2011 said:
How about turning it into a small off site factory for building more iPhones. Isn't that what they have been complaining about, the production not meeting demand?

Imagine, buyng an iPhone that was assembled in America. Go Apple!
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There are 600,000 iPhones produced every day in China. That's over 400 iPhones every minute.

A little factory in Arizona would not even be a blip on the radar.

But yeah... I agree that it would be cool :)
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Umm. No. If the contract was as "punitive" as you state it would have been voided by the court as GT asked. And my original post is as an atty, not a "fanboy" as you put it. Funny, how around here anyone that supports an Apple action is labeled a "fanboy" regardless of the context, and only those who oppose Apple are "impartial." ;)
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You see, this is the problem with fanboys - they see the world with one eye closed. The court didn't void it because Apple and GTAT pre-emptively came to a deal that dropped it anyway - the court didn't get the chance to make a decision either way. Therefore, you can't make an assertion that's based on unknown.
 
MellowFuzz said:
You see, this is the problem with fanboys - they see the world with one eye closed. The court didn't void it because Apple and GTAT pre-emptively came to a deal that dropped it anyway - the court didn't get the chance to make a decision either way. Therefore, you can't make an assertion that's based on unknown.
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1) A bankruptcy court doesn't have to accept any deal. It did have the right to void the contract, and chose to accept the settlement agreement.

2) If I'm such a fanboy as you want to suggest, then you might want to look at the first part of my original post. I'm not sure that's something a "fanboy" would write. But, hey, if you want to call me names, whatever gets you to sleep at night.

3) Check the MR home page for more on GT's mismanagement.
 
To preserve jobs?

You mean these jobs?

From the article at https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/19/gt-advanced-sapphire-failures/ —

"In an effort to ramp up production quickly to meet Apple's needs, GT Advanced hired hundreds of workers "with little oversight" before all of the company's furnaces were fully functional. Bored employees were paid overtime to sweep floors, while others skipped work all together."

I don't understand why Apple is cleaning up after GT Advanced. Screw that!
 
mozumder said:
This is a political statement, not an economic one. Please don't bring in political statements.
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I'm stating facts of the law, not "politics". The reason the MP says "assembled in the USA" instead of "made in the USA" is due to FTC regulatory rules. This regulation is designed to avoid deceptive and unfair labeling practices, such as doing 99% of the work elsewhere, then doing one last step in the USA and calling it "made in the USA".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_USA

http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus03-complying-made-usa-standard

If 75% or more of the manufacturing costs occur in the USA, then it can have the "made in USA" label. Because the MP is labeled "assembled in the USA", it clearly does not meet this standard.

mozumder said:
The Mac Pro meets the economic definition of being manufactured in the US.
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Is this economic definition just your personal opinion? I genuinely looked for it, and everything came back to the FTC regulatory rules.

If it's just your personal opinion, then there's no debate. That's just your opinion. It's clearly not the law though.

And Apple would seem to agree with me:
applewwdc2013-0137-1370887449.jpg
 
Rafagon said:
To preserve jobs?



You mean these jobs?



From the article at https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/19/gt-advanced-sapphire-failures/ —



"In an effort to ramp up production quickly to meet Apple's needs, GT Advanced hired hundreds of workers "with little oversight" before all of the company's furnaces were fully functional. Bored employees were paid overtime to sweep floors, while others skipped work all together."



I don't understand why Apple is cleaning up after GT Advanced. Screw that!
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Did they skip work 'all together', meaning that all the employees, as a group, skipped work, or did they skip work 'altogether', meaning that the skipped all work.
 
Glideslope said:
You nailed it. NY will be the "Silicon Vally" of the East...
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No it won't!

Unionization and eventual demands for over-the-top benefits, government regulation, and general bureaucrat butt-in-ery, which is the heaviest in places like NY, IL, and CA, would either kill the endeavor (Golden Egg), or Apple itself (the Goose).

I submit to you... Detroit, Chrysler, and General Motors.

"Built in America" has a beautiful ring to it, but that ring is hollow in the "Motor City" because of YEARS of bad products. I had to learn it the hard way myself, but once learned the lesson has stuck. I haven't bought a GM car in years because of this and bailouts.

I wouldn't build any manufacturing facilities in any of those places unless things REALLY change a lot.
 
Rogifan said:
I think the nMP and the way it was designed (with the thermal core) and manufactured is very impressive engineering. I don't consider it to be a gimmick at all. You can be critical of the form factor and still be impressed by the engineering (which many were when it was announced).
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Oh I totally agree that it is an impressive feat of engineering. Unfortunately the engineering wasn't done with the Mac Pro user/owner in mind. In many ways it is a downgrade from the Mac Pro tower.
 
peterdevries said:
It doesn't really matter now does it? The point is that US citizens are working in a plant building an Apple product. All discussion about manufacturing or assembling is semantics and ignores the fact that Apple has invested in the creation of US based jobs. Whether they call themselves assembly workers, manufacturers or process industry workers is totally besides the real point here.
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Agree on the part of about US jobs. Where I remain skeptical is regarding the future trajectory of it. If this is the first step in returning manufacturing to the US it is impressive.

Yet the point still stands that the real manufacturing expertise remains in Asia. Sure it's an improvement, and such things must be done incrementally, that goes without saying. But the MP is still only assembled in the US, not "made" in the US.

----------
mozumder said:
Well, in economics, you made the pie. It might not be authentic, but you still made it from those parts.

Economics doesn't care about where the parts come from, only where the FINAL product was made.
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Weasle words.
 
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