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'Brick' Refers to the MacBook Manufacturing Process

rdowns said:
All this Made in the USA talk is rather comical. There is no way in hell that Apple will manufacture their laptops in the USA. They got out of the manufacturing business because it was just too costly.
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Different era, energy costs more than ever. If they can find any way to save money in the the process, I'm sure they'll consider anything.
 
rdowns said:
All this Made in the USA talk is rather comical. There is no way in hell that Apple will manufacture their laptops in the USA. They got out of the manufacturing business because it was just too costly.
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Rising energy costs are already causing more and more companies to reduce transportation of materials and finished products. At what price does oil have to be before it costs less to build in America rather then build in China and ship to America? There is some point where it is cheaper in America, and perhaps Apple is betting that point is nearer rather than farther? (They do have Al Gore on their board :)

Also, if it is highly automated, there can be very few workers and the high cost of American labor (as a negative) is negated.
 
Tallest Skil said:
The original Macintosh 128k was an all-in-one computer because Steve Jobs didn't believe in letting the end-user perform their own upgrades.

Consequently, this has carried over through several decades.
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Bull. It's only started again recently, the old PowerMacs were easily user-serviceable. (G4 side-panel, anyone?)

hahaha you so funny


not
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What are you, seven?
 
All the self-delusion in this thread… :confused:

There is no way that Apple or other major computer manufacturer will let go of the OEM model. The costs involved for manufacturing in the USA/Ireland is far too high. Besides, why allow labour laws etc to interfere with a good solid profit?

Why people think that machine stamping a sheet of aluminium means "Made in China" while machine tooling a block of aluminium means "Made in the USA" is beyond me.

If this happens I'll slather my Akubra with some Vegemite and eat the whole damn thing. And that is not going to happen. ;)
 
arkitect said:
All the self-delusion in this thread… :confused:

There is no way that Apple or other major computer manufacturer will let go of the OEM model. The costs involved for manufacturing in the USA/Ireland is far too high. Besides, why allow labour laws etc to interfere with a good solid profit?

Why people think that machine stamping a sheet of aluminium means "Made in China" while machine tooling a block of aluminium means "Made in the USA" is beyond me.

If this happens I'll slather my Akubra with some Vegemite and eat the whole damn thing. And that is not going to happen. ;)
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I agree it almost certainly won't happen.

I think it is in part, whether people realise it or not, down to ignorance of foreigners. We did it first, our labour costs more, we are more civilised, new processes developed in the western world will be made in the western world. While this last one is true most of the time, a short while after it is almost inevitable that it gets shipped to somewhere cheaper.

I would be among the first to commend Apple for returning to the US or Cork, Ireland for manufacturing, (although some hardware is still produced in Cork, nowhere near previous levels). I just can't see it, yet.
 
so will you be able to open it and put in new parts easily (like ram) or what? is it going to be glued together like ipods that u have to heat up then wedge off to get to the internals?
 
As I understand, this laser-brick-technology lets you cut any form out of a brick of aluminum... so will the next macbooks look like this?

ikitsch_gross.jpg


SCNR
 
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akm3 said:
Rising energy costs are already causing more and more companies to reduce transportation of materials and finished products. At what price does oil have to be before it costs less to build in America rather then build in China and ship to America?
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Shipping costs will have zero effect on that equation. The MacBooks will still be assembled from the same materials imported from Asia. It doesn't matter if you assemble them before shipping or after. On the other hand, shipping to everywhere else will be more expensive, with an added stop in the US.
 
mkatsa said:
The main reason why eveything is made in China is the low wages paid to staff.

Now, if this new manufacturing process would reduce the need for staff, then you would think that Apple could bring the factory to the USA.

However, what you have to realise is that most of the internals of the Mac (Lcd, motherboard, ram, HDD ect) are made in China, most likely next door to the Foxconn factory. The benefit being that transport costs are reduced largely due to all the factories being close together in China

If the Apple factory were to move to the USA, costs would rise as they would have to ship thousands of internal parts from overseas.

Thats the main reason in my opinion why the Factory will not come to USA.
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Tell that to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and all the Japanese car companies with plants in the U.S. Do you think they make the parts here? No they import most of them from Germany, Mexico, and Japan. A BMW made in Spartanburg, SC contains about 60% parts made in Germany and imported to the US for final assembly.

So to say its not economical for Apple to make computers in the U.S. in a reduced workforce factory with imported parts just doesn't bear out what the noted car companies already do.
 
Manderby said:
As I understand, this laser-brick-technology lets you cut any form out of a brick of aluminum... so will the next macbooks look like this?

ikitsch.jpg


SCNR
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If the Ancient Greeks and Roman did not fall, we would have use computers liked this by the year 1000.
And just imagine the technology today if the Ancients did not fall.
Stupid Middle Ages period. :D
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Tell that to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and all the Japanese car companies with plants in the U.S. Do you think they make the parts here? No they import most of them from Germany, Mexico, and Japan. A BMW made in Spartanburg, SC contains about 60% parts made in Germany and imported to the US for final assembly.

So to say its not economical for Apple to make computers in the U.S. in a reduced workforce factory with imported parts just doesn't bear out what the noted car companies already do.
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I agree.
It could be that Apple has set up a manufacturing shop in several key places (for them) around the world , and each will ship units to it's respective area .

Like it has been said before ........with such automation , worker costs really don't come into it.

Also if Apple where to source materials close to each shop with self contained manufacturing /recycling plants they'd be on to a winner as far as reducing overall costs and high st product prices
 
this probably has been asked already but I dont feel like sifting through 300+ comments.

How do you make a computer out of one piece of aluminum? As in, how many total aluminum parts will it have? the monitor housing, then the computer housing, but then how do you get the components inside?

...
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

It is getting close to new MacBooks. I can't wait to see them. This Brick technology sounds pretty neat as well. I wonder if it is similar to the way that auto part manufacturers have made custom wheels for the last ten or so years.
 
with there own factory they can protect their mental property, keep there rumors down to a minimum :( and! make me a macbook that wont come half assedly put together. but above all they (i hope) will manufacture in america.
 
_____________________________________________________

I drew this line here so that we now have some concrete definition of where the patriotism, xenophobia, and nationalism ends. This is a tech forum. Act civilized.
 
curate's egg

Kilamite said:
Not when it is all automated like this, and cost efficient.
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Automated like what? Your imaginary pipe-dream?

Seriously, is Dean Kamen hiding out in this forum?

Is "The Brick" actually a form of web-based exploit capable of hypnosis and mind control?

Has everyone been eating toothpaste? Drinking too much tap water?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3y8uwtxrHo

:eek:-:apple:-:eek:

What's the odds on it being run by oompa-loompas?

/sarcasm
 
MrCrowbar said:
I understand this implies making the case of just one piece of metal. Imagine a macbook case (without the screen) that only has holes on the top end for the keys and one on the back to attach the display and slide in the logic board and battery. To save space and keep it user servicable, you could slide out the logic board yourself, swap RAM and hard drive, put it back in and off you go.

This is seriously exciting!
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I was thinking the same thing.

I think maybe the parts available to Apple could be customized enough that you can only use Apples approved list of internals. So basically you buy any chassis you want from Apple and select from a list of pieces that you can install yourself or have Apple put in for you, at a cost. This ensures Apple is in control of both the hardware and software same as they ever were.

Replacing the logic board would be perhaps as easy as replacing the RAM is now. The key to profit here is that you can only use Apple approved parts and these would be sold at a premium but still cheaper than buying an entire new laptop and making it possible to do upgrades here and there which would provide steady revenue.

There would be slots on the bottom like the current macbook (or any number of designs would work) that you stick a coin in. I think they would come up with something a bit slicker but this would work. The first one turns and the battery pops out, turning the second one makes the keyboard pop up. I think somebody was speculating that these buttons could be on the top but I see them for sure being on the bottom. It just takes a longer screw to make it do this from the bottom of the unit.

Of course I am just using my imagination here and don't know if this is even a remote a possibility. An awesome new case with the ability to swap out parts would silence many (read pretty much all here) critics of the current line up.

I am in the market for a new laptop as my macbook is broken and not worth the repair bill. I have owned more than my share of macs in the past few years and it is just not exciting to think of getting another macbook right now. Sure the specs are better than what i have but it is hard to be enthused to purchase the exact same thing I have already been using for a couple years.

This could be the most exciting news to come from a rumor in quite some time. With the last two lack luster Apple events it would be great to see Apple hit one out of the park here. If nothing very substantial happens before December which is when it is a must buy for a laptop for me, I will consider a very cheap windows box to help me wait it out. Of course that's not ideal but I just can't see buying any Apple notebook how it stands as of now.
 
Zephirus said:
bend any metal pipe and then try to bend it back in the opposite direction, you will never be able to do it because the bended part's strength is increased. Instead, notice how the part that will bend will not be the one you originally bended.
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i am not sure if I understand what you are saying but if I do how could I have ever bent rebar to make concrete by hand with no other tools? They way i accomplished this was to bend the rebar and then bend it in the opposite direction. The part of the bend that gets stressed is the part that breaks.
 
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