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abz1981

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 3, 2011
1,013
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As the title says. I wonder how much of a more premium on Apple products such as Iphones, we would end up paying, if Apple shifted the whole production and assembly to the USA.

I mean i have noticed a lot of haters of foxconn and having production made in China etc. However for all those people who are hating the production facility in China, would you actually want to end up paying more, for what the Iphone already costs.

Yes we need to help our economy and bring jobs back to the USA etc. However would you still want to end up paying more of a premium on Apple products?
 
It depends how much more.

As a non-american (British), I wouldn't be willing to pay a huge amount more just to see production return to the US. Obviously our economies are closely linked though so paying SLIGHTLY more to know something was produced in the West may be acceptable.
 
BanterClaus said:
It depends how much more.

As a non-american (British), I wouldn't be willing to pay a huge amount more just to see production return to the US. Obviously our economies are closely linked though so paying SLIGHTLY more to know something was produced in the West may be acceptable.
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I agree with you. Maybe we will one day face a situation where the home markets of each country would end up producing a phone that suits them best. For example rumor is that the new blackberry is not going to do well in blackberrys keymarkets outside the USA and Europe, in India and Indonesia, as the cost is too high. So therefore blackberry may make a cheaper version for them markets.
 
The whole thread is moot.

If u been paying attention, Apple will probably do some assembly (only) to the iMac line. And then if (big if) the jobs comes back to the U.S., the trend is, robots will do them, not people.
 
Mrbobb said:
The whole thread is moot.

If u been paying attention, Apple will probably do some assembly (only) to the iMac line. And then if (big if) the jobs comes back to the U.S., the trend is, robots will do them, not people.
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There would still be a massive amount of skilled labor required to support the robots and design/update/maintain the lines.
 
Low paying assembly line jobs are not good for US. That's why they were shipped to China. The fact that companies are thinking of bringing those types of jobs back just shows how bad the economy is. It's just another race to the bottom and how much real wages have fallen in the US. Instead we should be focusing on getting more students interested in math, science and engineering which will keep the high tech jobs in US. Otherwise, those jobs will be shipped off to China, and we will become their cheap uneducated labor force.
 
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I come from an union family, my dad being president of a large one, and I'd certainly pay an extra amount to have my phone made here.
 
wxman2003 said:
Low paying assembly line jobs are not good for US. That's why they were shipped to China. The fact that companies are thinking of bringing those types of jobs back just shows how bad the economy is. It's just another race to the bottom and how much real wages have fallen in the US. Instead we should be focusing on getting more students interested in the math, science and engineering which will keep the high tech jobs in US. Otherwise, those jobs will be shipped off to China, and we will become their cheap uneducated labor force.
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Agree with this.
 
I hope not. Americans are lazy and often call in sick. Asians are more skilled and work faster. I am already waiting like 2 months at launch with these skilled workers. If the yields are even lower and the prices are higher that would be awful
 
surjavarman said:
I hope not. Americans are lazy and often call in sick. Asians are more skilled and work faster. I am already waiting like 2 months at launch with these skilled workers. If the yields are even lower and the prices are higher that would be awful
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I don't think you can generalise all Americans like that. That's like me saying all British people have yellow teeth. You get lazy people in every country.
 
I wouldn't pay any premium. Most of the Chinese workers actually want to work in the factories, it's not slave labor over there even if the conditions aren't top notch sometimes. Why waste money on Americans when someone else will do the same work for less?

I'm sure Apple's shareholders would also be pissed from the cost increase of manufacturing in the US.
 
I also think that to what we think is low pay in for example china may be a decent pay in china. You can't expect every country to have the same level of pay for employees.
 
I believe some time last year President Obama ask Tim Cook this same question and Cook said it really would not drive the cost up, but there was some other reason they did not do it. I will try to look the article up.
 
abz1981 said:
As the title says. I wonder how much of a more premium on Apple products such as Iphones, we would end up paying, if Apple shifted the whole production and assembly to the USA.

I mean i have noticed a lot of haters of foxconn and having production made in China etc. However for all those people who are hating the production facility in China, would you actually want to end up paying more, for what the Iphone already costs.

Yes we need to help our economy and bring jobs back to the USA etc. However would you still want to end up paying more of a premium on Apple products?
Click to expand...

Profit Margins for Apple will go down considerably if production returns to the US. In the end, Apple was made by Steve with profit in mind, remember that.
 
I would pay a little more for an iPhone made in America.

Truth of the matter is that all those factory jobs will likely never return to the USA. We've been passing "free" trade laws since the 70s and effectively shipped our manufacturing jobs overseas. Domestic wages dropped and corporate profits soared. This is the way it will be for a long time.
 
It's all politics folks. Low level assembly jobs are not coming back. Don't go OCD about ur cost.
 
Apple is not going to pay someone in the US $20 an hour to build an iPhone. And since 90% of the rare earth elements that are needed to build the critical parts of the phone (battery, LCD, etc) are mined in China, it makes no sense to ship assembly jobs back to the US.
 
CEmajr said:
I would pay a little more for an iPhone made in America.

Truth of the matter is that all those factory jobs will likely never return to the USA. We've been passing "free" trade laws since the 70s and effectively shipped our manufacturing jobs overseas. Domestic wages dropped and corporate profits soared. This is the way it will be for a long time.
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Agreed. I would be willing to pay a little more, but don't think that these jobs are coming back.
 
I simply don't buy their excuses it would cost way too much to build their products in the US, what I can believe is they would not have the scales of economy to get their forced cheap labor to build the demanded products in such a quick window of time.

That said, Apple has the cash to do what they need and then some, time to put up or shut up, oh wait that's right their $137+ Billion sits off shore and if they try to bring it home its taxed too high. Oh well.
 
Made in the USA........I'd feel better purchasing anything made in the USA as opposed to another country. Let's create jobs in America !
 
What mass produced products are manufactured in 1st world nations?
 
abz1981 said:
As the title says. I wonder how much of a more premium on Apple products such as Iphones, we would end up paying, if Apple shifted the whole production and assembly to the USA.

I mean i have noticed a lot of haters of foxconn and having production made in China etc. However for all those people who are hating the production facility in China, would you actually want to end up paying more, for what the Iphone already costs.

Yes we need to help our economy and bring jobs back to the USA etc. However would you still want to end up paying more of a premium on Apple products?
Click to expand...

USA made is great if its still $199
 
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