According to the pundits, the oil price drop is due to not only Trump's tariff shenanigans (and China's response), but also OPEC+'s decision to increase production at the same time.
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Bank of America: US-Made iPhones Would Face 90% Cost Surge
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The real challenges, our cost of living and consumer debt. The old school guys thinking manufacturing coming back to this country would be a big job creator. Could be just not on the manufacturing floor. Their vision, less educated good paying jobs assembling iPhones. To make it work, robotic AI automation removing essentially all the manufacturing floor jobs. The labor costs are at ten times higher here because of our cost of living. What jobs would be created, highly skilled and trained jobs designing and maintaining the automation on the factory floor. The old school guys, will deliver the jobs to those well educated.
The end gambit is redistribution of wealth and I'm not against that.
Socialism does not equal communism. It’s totally possible to have distribution of wealth without an autocratic regime.
But what about that process where at least the chips and such are made in America and then the assembly of the parts is done overseas? "Designed by Apple in California, assembled in China." A nice half-and-half process.
Also, Bank of America is what my family uses for our banking, as well as me and my brother's VISA debit cards. I'm old enough to remember when their banks and ATMs in my area were originally called BayBank, then BankBoston, and then FleetBoston until Bank of America bought them out. (My mom has even still called them "BankBoston" by force of habit.)
Also, Bank of America is what my family uses for our banking, as well as me and my brother's VISA debit cards. I'm old enough to remember when their banks and ATMs in my area were originally called BayBank, then BankBoston, and then FleetBoston until Bank of America bought them out. (My mom has even still called them "BankBoston" by force of habit.)
The chips are currently made in Taiwan but they were already on-track to be manufactured in the US in the future before this tariff thing. Memory and glass also made in the US. Storage could reasonably be purchased from a US manufacturer if not already.
I believe the biggest challenges to a US-sourced iPhone are the displays and the cameras. I believe the two most common sources are South Korea and China on the former and Japan and China on the latter.
I believe it would be good for the US to have some capability to make modern displays since almost nothing these days can be made without one. For that it shouldn't try to replicate this generation of OLED/etc but start building the infrastructure to produce whatever comes after it.
That happened years ago. Assembly lines are very automated, even in the US.
However, in the US there are many small companies in which labor is still significant. These companies usually make boutique products, like high-end audio, automotive bling, and the like.
The big manufacturers like auto companies were leaders in automation decades ago.
Trump cut all imperial units by 20%, didn’t you hear?
Really?
Give me a link, because when I googled it the parts list given (for US version) are sourced from China, such as the modem, the camera, etc.
I believe it's now called the "Liberty" phone and is listed at $1999 on their website. The chassis still comes from China and the WiFi card is from India. Not even the folks who reviewed it at Blaze media back in the beginning of 2024 could recommend it. I'm sure part of the issue on the cost is the scale at which they're producing them, but that would also be a hitch for Apple because the amount of iPhones they make is massive.
Apple contracts with the largest manufacturing companies (often Taiwan based) in the world, like Foxconn, who have developed manufacturing capabilities around the world.
So it's a Foxconn plant that is contracted specifically to Apple.
Foxconn and its competitors spend years cultivating relationships with local leaders to get what they need, as far as facilities and labor.
None of this happens overnight.
Unrelated but just read an article about how Louis Vuitton has a factory in Texas, although this opened back in 2019 they are still facing issues with creating quality products, the problem being unskilled workers, other factories worldwide handle the more delicate and intricate hand bags, where as the Texas location only focus on the 1-3k priced items. The problem is finding skilled handbag workers.
If Apple brings back manufacturing, it will indeed require a lot of rewiring people’s mentality for that work. It doesn’t help at all that the most accidents on factories come from China also. All I’m saying is that it will indeed require a lot of training aside from 30,000 engineers on all levels for this happen.
Which is a gross exaggeration on their part.
Making a PCB is different than making the components which populate the PCB.
Your link only gives a partial list of what goes into a phone. They skip the processor, and admit that the other chips come from China and India.
The entire venture smacks to me like a hustle, something which appeals to Trumpers.
Y’all want made in Murica but don’t want to pay the $2,500-$3,000 pricing. Can’t have it both ways.
If their listed memory provider is Micron then currently its memory fabs are in Taiwan.
Under the CHiPS Act Micron has been enticed to construct a manufacturing facility in Idaho, where they have R&D, and another in NY.
However, that Act was from the Biden administration and Trump has derided it intensly.
if they think Apple really is that incompetent, then we have a much bigger problem than the high cost of US-made iPhones.....
And ultimately all of this….to “bring back” jobs that are not even desirable or that pay well.
It’s a futile and erroneous attempt to de globalize … it’s progress in reverse.
Capitalism 101 - less skilled jobs get shipped to the lowest cost. Economies then depend on more highly skilled workers and exports are finished intellectual property and high end services. The problem is the USA still has large groups of uneducated people, people who don't even want to have an education, but want 'modern' high paying jobs. And they want 'cheap' goods of course. And they don't want taxes...What is the solution?
