Apple's Mac Pro Shipping Estimates in U.S. Move to 5-6 Weeks

[applesith]

Problem with Asia is there is no regulations. They are the opposite of environmentally friendly. Lots of factories have contaminated surrounding areas (land, water, and air). Have you seen the amount of smog out there? It's worse than that of NJ/NY here in the US.

Even with my prior post, it still doesn't mean manufacturing can't be done in the US. Manufacturing is still happening and continues to do so.

Your post implies it's not going to happen at all and that's wrong. It still does happen and it is possible for more companies to do so. These companies just don't want to do it.

Meanwhile, labor prices overseas are continually increasing too. As a company moves in, they take advantage of their workforce. However, the workforce they employ eventually gets paid, even if small, to survive and grow an economy in that city. As more and more have jobs and flourish, they demand more income.

Lots of companies left other countries because of this. Nike was a prime example.

Even if a company has to increase a person's wage from 50 cents per day to a 100 cents per day, that's a big expense. It becomes a point of, is it really cheaper to manufacturer overseas now? If a product recall happens, that adds to the cost of shipping back and forth.

Sure Apple has a nice profit margin, so a 50 cent wage increase probably won't matter. But there are a lot of smaller companies overseas that sell to Walmart where if their cost increases a nickle, they may have to shut down their operations.

Lots of companies fail to realize the effects of their actions. A quick buck saved can cost multi-millions later.

Build factories in china now - wages increase - build factories in another country - wages increase - the cycle continues but how much $ was saved if you keep building factories, having to move or buy new equipment, spend time hiring a labor force, etc?

The less profitable ones are realizing this and have moved back to their home country as the tax incentives for moving into select metro areas can be more helpful. Kansas City and Austin are two prime examples.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect the US workforce to be able to mimic that of Asia. Foxconn has workers around the clock on their assembly lines. These are people coming from rural poverty to essentially live within the factory and devote most of their awake time to the assemblies.

Are these really the types of jobs we want to increase? We did that back when the US was the car capital of world and in the 1920s when we had tons of factories running. Our workforce has progressed beyond that. Manufacturing is the best way to put unskilled people to work in scale. That's why it's the first step to an economy moving from rural poverty to industrialization. Moving the US to that would be going backwards. And yes, we would need to devote a significant number of workers to match the supply of Asia. Yes wages in Asia and other developing areas are increasing, but there is still a massive supply of workers to be added to that.

Another big advantage to production in Asia is all of the components for the devices are made on that side of the world as well. If a popular iphone was assembled in the USA (like the MacPro), do you have any idea of how many parts would need to be sent to the US for those millions of iphones each quarter? That would increase costs and production times. I'd imagine companies like Foxconn are vertically integrated and produce many components in-house. Bringing that to the US would require even more workers and factories.

You are wrong when you say tech companies keep production in Asia only because they don't want to bring it here. They are business and are going to do what keeps their production most efficient. Do you think there is some conspiracy among the tech companies? "We hate US workers, so keep it all in Asia".

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I wouldn't say it's easy for Apple to just setup a factory in a closed GM plant. Apple said what they said in the NY Times articles regardless of you calling it bull. Built in the USA would be a huge marketing advantage and one of the large tech companies would have done it by now if it can be done. But it can't.

Do you work for china? Tesla motors did it.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Problem with Asia is there is no regulations. They are the opposite of environmentally friendly. Lots of factories have contaminated surrounding areas (land, water, and air). Have you seen the amount of smog out there? It's worse than that of NJ/NY here in the US.

Even with my prior post, it still doesn't mean manufacturing can't be done in the US. Manufacturing is still happening and continues to do so.

Your post implies it's not going to happen at all and that's wrong. It still does happen and it is possible for more companies to do so. These companies just don't want to do it.

Meanwhile, labor prices overseas are continually increasing too. As a company moves in, they take advantage of their workforce. However, the workforce they employ eventually gets paid, even if small, to survive and grow an economy in that city. As more and more have jobs and flourish, they demand more income.

Lots of companies left other countries because of this. Nike was a prime example.

Even if a company has to increase a person's wage from 50 cents per day to a 100 cents per day, that's a big expense. It becomes a point of, is it really cheaper to manufacturer overseas now? If a product recall happens, that adds to the cost of shipping back and forth.

Sure Apple has a nice profit margin, so a 50 cent wage increase probably won't matter. But there are a lot of smaller companies overseas that sell to Walmart where if their cost increases a nickle, they may have to shut down their operations.

Lots of companies fail to realize the effects of their actions. A quick buck saved can cost multi-millions later.

Build factories in china now - wages increase - build factories in another country - wages increase - the cycle continues but how much $ was saved if you keep building factories, having to move or buy new equipment, spend time hiring a labor force, etc?

The less profitable ones are realizing this and have moved back to their home country as the tax incentives for moving into select metro areas can be more helpful. Kansas City and Austin are two prime examples.

I'm waiting for China and other countries to be unionized. It seems that after Bill Clinton and NAFTA opened Pandora's box, the only way to get work back here is to make it just as expensive everywhere else. And if respect for humanity and the environment is expensive, imagine all of the corporations that have repeatedly raped these third world hell holes having to pay AMERICAN market wages AND having to pay to clean up their messes!

 

[applesith]

Do you work for china? Tesla motors did it.

Haha, no I do not work for China. Car manufacturing is more standardized than tech devices and assemblies don't change as often. Tesla isn't producing anywhere near a fraction of how many phones and tablets Apple needs to make to meet demand.

Cars vs. phones/tablets is not a fair comparison.

 

[hdrummon]

MP is well worth the wait - stop the whining

My wait time was one month and was well worth it. It is amazing, super incredibly fast and silent 100% of the time with hardly any heat generated. I'm a huge fan and this is my 4th generation of mac Pro purchases. It blows away anything else.

Next, I believe that Apple uses third parties in the US to manufacture these and I thought it was part of Foxconn as well. Maybe or maybe not. In any event, most of the production is using robotics not humans. So, that alone would keep production numbers limited. Perhaps they under-estimated the number of people needing/wanting this Mac Pro version but I bet they are selling every single one maid at high margin which will encourage more development and more investment in plants.

 

[Cavepainter]

We will NEVER return to the "good old days" where a person with a basic high school education can get a factory job and earn enough to support a family. It will never happen agin.

Even if Apple were to move iPhone production back to the US and hire 100,000 people those would all be low-skill, low-pay jobs at maybe $12 per hour at the most. Would you really want those jobs to move back here? Think of the social problems of having 100,000 minimum wage workers living in your town.

...because we are all SO much better off when those 100,000 workers have absolutely no work at all.

Might I suggest you take your next vacation in Detroit. You might learn something.

 

[unplugme71]

I'm waiting for China and other countries to be unionized. It seems that after Bill Clinton and NAFTA opened Pandora's box, the only way to get work back here is to make it just as expensive everywhere else. And if respect for humanity and the environment is expensive, imagine all of the corporations that have repeatedly raped these third world hell holes having to pay AMERICAN market wages AND having to pay to clean up their messes!

that'd be great!

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Do you work for china? Tesla motors did it.

But there is a movement in Wall Street that seeks to slag down any corporation that defies the 'common logic' that America is done as far as being a manufacturing, or domestic powerhouse.

It seems like an epidemic:Tesla is taking hits because of the ways it wants to build and sell their cars, and where it wants to build their batteries, and Costco is taking hits (bludgeoning?) for daring to pay their workers a 'living wage' and keeping their prices near or below Wal-Mart, etc...

It's as if there is a focused spasm of helplessness that has gripped Wall Street and the boardrooms of most of America's companies.

Not to long ago, it used to be considered that it would be better to be dead than 'red', and yet company after patriot company (bless their hearts) are constantly short selling both America and the American people. It's a sickness, a cowardice, an inability to realize that by having damn near literally everything that we purchase being manufactured by communist countries, we are giving away the farm!

China has learned so much from their use as our manufacturing heart, that the future looks more and more like China will one day rule the world, and we, and damn near the rest of the world won't be able to do a damn ting about it.

China could already literally shake this country into Third World status if they wanted to.

Amazing because it was the GOP under, and before Reagan that was chanting the 'better dead than red' mantra...

What happened?

Oh, and on the slipping shipping, have you SEEN the new Mac Pro? It's the cutest little thing I've seen in a while! It makes the behemoth sitting next to my left leg look like a first gen mainframe in comparison! The Apple Store person said that most people think it's a trash can and the store staff have to pick stuff out of it often. But hell, if I had the money, I'd buy one too, and sit and wait for it impatiently... If...