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Future iPhones Could Be 'Made in America' as Apple Asks Foxconn to Consider U.S. Manufacturing

It's so stupid to see some believe these these moves are related to the president elect. A couple days after the election Ford announces an increase in some US manufacturing and some want to believe it was due to trying to please Trump. Yes, I'm sure that a huge company like Ford made a decision like that in 2 days to please someone who may or may not make as off yet unknown changes to encourage US manufacturing.

Funny, you didn't see those same folks relating the 2,000 people that GM will be laying off in the new year to the president elect.

If Apple makes this move, it has nothing to do with who is president and all to do with what will be most profitable to them. As a public company their first and foremost responsibility is to creating a positive return for their shareholders.
 
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The posters who said "robotics" are spot on. Don't forget that Apple already demo'ed a dis-assembly robot. Granted, that's easier than assembly but the principles are exactly the same.

And despite Trump's rhetoric, there won't be a whole pile of new jobs. Certainly there will be some but nothing like the number of assembly workers in China. Mostly that's because you just cannot ramp 10,000 or 20,000 U.S. workers in a few days the way it happens in China.

Maybe Trump should start making his suits and ties in the U.S. too instead of offshore somewhere.
 
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yaxomoxay said:
Producing company will pay taxes in the US.
People will need to oversee robotics.
People will need to work in the buildings.
People will need to plan and implement.
People will need to deliver from the US to the rest of the world and pay taxes/fees/salaries accordingly.

Of course you ain't going to have a XIX century manufacturing chain, or not even a replica of Foxconn in China.
Click to expand...

There was a magazine interview with Steve Jobs a while ago where he was asked about making iPhones in the US. He said the issue wasn't finding low-level labor in the US to actually assemble the iPhones (I think he may have even mentioned robotics), the issue was finding skilled industrial engineers to design and oversee the processes, a job that has to be local to where the product is being built. Apparently engineering schools in China pump out industrial engineers in large numbers. In the US, this segment of engineering is shrinking among BSE graduates. We just don't have enough of these engineers to support the sort of large scale manufacturing at this time.
 
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Orlandoech said:
If it does, iPhone costs goes up, I mean how else does Apple maintain their ridiculously inflated margins?

But I do support this.
Click to expand...
There was a story by Bloomberg a few years ago that said Foxconn had 300,000 employees just for the iPhone 5S assembly plant. What city in the United States has 300,000 eligible and available workers to do this? Or do you want Apple to create iPhone City in Appalachia where all these uneducated white men can migrate to to get a job assembling iPhones? And what about all the components that go into the phone. Does all that manufacturing have to come here too? Or does Apple eat the cost of shipping all those components here? Apple sells more phones outside the USA. Should the rest of the world have to pay more for their iPhone so it can be manufactured in the USA? Does a consumer in the UK care whether their iPhone was manufactured in the USA or not?
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
It's so stupid to see some believe these these moves are related to the president elect. A couple days after the election Ford announces an increase in some US manufacturing and some want to believe it was due to trying to please Trump. Yes, I'm sure that a huge company like Ford made a decision like that in 2 days to please someone who may or may not make as off yet unknown changes to encourage US manufacturing.

Funny, you didn't see those same folks relating the 2,000 people that GM will be laying off in the new year to the president elect.

If Apple makes this move, it has nothing to do with who is president and all to do with what will be most profitable to them. As a public company their first and foremost responsibility is to creating a positive return for their shareholders.
Click to expand...
Yes, Apple has been trying to manufacture in the US with Mac Pro for a while.
Now look at the Mac Pro. Are you willing to pay that kind of price for iPhone?
 
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Looks like Mr Cook is in for a bumpy ride

image.jpeg
 
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Apple probably asked for the difference to be costed up, in order to be able to quote that figure in lobbying. And not much other reason.
 
oneMadRssn said:
There was a magazine interview with Steve Jobs a while ago where he was asked about making iPhones in the US. He said the issue wasn't finding low-level labor in the US to actually assemble the iPhones (I think he may have even mentioned robotics), the issue was finding skilled industrial engineers to design and oversee the processes, a job that has to be local to where the product is being built. Apparently engineering schools in China pump out industrial engineers in large numbers. In the US, this segment of engineering is shrinking among BSE graduates. We just don't have enough of these engineers to support the sort of large scale manufacturing at this time.
Click to expand...
Not only that, but the flexibility at scale that China has is truly stunning. I recall a story about the original iPhone being switched from a plastic to a glass screen extremely late in the initial manufacturing process and Foxconn essentially woke up part of the workforce at like 3am to begin immediately retooling the line.

You can't do that in America....people aren't going to live in a factory city and live their lives there at the whims of a customer.
 
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Sure, just find thousands upon thousands of workers that you can hire in no time that are willing to work at a factory all day.
 
oneMadRssn said:
There was a magazine interview with Steve Jobs a while ago where he was asked about making iPhones in the US. He said the issue wasn't finding low-level labor in the US to actually assemble the iPhones (I think he may have even mentioned robotics), the issue was finding skilled industrial engineers to design and oversee the processes, a job that has to be local to where the product is being built. Apparently engineering schools in China pump out industrial engineers in large numbers. In the US, this segment of engineering is shrinking among BSE graduates. We just don't have enough of these engineers to support the sort of large scale manufacturing at this time.
Click to expand...

H1-B. Problem solved.
[doublepost=1479401727][/doublepost]
ghostface147 said:
Sure, just find thousands upon thousands of workers that you can hire in no time that are willing to work at a factory all day.
Click to expand...

I bet you will be surprised to see how many will do it. Especially ex-automotive and ex-mining workers.
 
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Steve.P.JobsFan said:
FTC law says that for a product to be stamped "Assembled in USA" a certain percentage of the parts need to be from America and not imported.
Click to expand...

it's going to depend on the interpretation of what material transformation is for parts that can't even be sourced by USA manufacturers.
 
What might be the saddest indicator of the state of our economy/country/working people is that it has become laughable, judging by the tone of some here, to think jobs could be brought to the United States. If there was some way for them to do it and for an iPhone to not cost $10,000 wouldn't that be a good thing? Even if it was 100 jobs, isn't 100 jobs here better than 1,000 in China?
 
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yaxomoxay said:
H1-B. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
You realize the ripple effect that has on wages in a given industry right?

Why we're still insisting on policies that end up in a race to the bottom in terms of wages and benefits here in the USA is beyond me. Those policies just got Trump elected as he paid lip service to reversing them. How much longer we double down on them before the population actually turns violent is anyone's guess.
 
NT1440 said:
You realize the ripple effect that has on wages in a given industry right?

Why we're still insisting on policies that end up in a race to the bottom in terms of wages and benefits here in the USA is beyond me. Those policies just got Trump elected as he paid lip service to reversing them. How much longer we double down on them before the population actually turns violent is anyone's guess.
Click to expand...

H1-B on a few engineers while adding a tons of manufacturing jobs will not be an issue. Abuse of H1-B (or hopefully a much better version of it) will cause issues.
It all depends on the various terms.
 
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NT1440 said:
You realize the ripple effect that has on wages in a given industry right?

Why we're still insisting on policies that end up in a race to the bottom in terms of wages and benefits here in the USA is beyond me. Those policies just got Trump elected as he paid lip service to reversing them. How much longer we double down on them before the population actually turns violent is anyone's guess.
Click to expand...
I doubt that. But this again has nothin to do with trump.
 
NT1440 said:
Not only that, but the flexibility at scale that China has is truly stunning. I recall a story about the original iPhone being switched from a plastic to a glass screen extremely late in the initial manufacturing process and Foxconn essentially woke up part of the workforce at like 3am to begin immediately retooling the line.

You can't do that in America....people aren't going to live in a factory city and live their lives there at the whims of a customer.
Click to expand...
Yea there are lots of stories like that. Also often quoted is the fact that if you make a minor change to a screw, you can get quantities of the new screw in the millions within hours in Shenzen.

I think, however, as the wealth in China increases, their tolerance of that sort of thing will decrease. As the work becomes more skilled, the workers will not tolerate that kind of employment. In small ways, this is already happening over there with wages. It's not nearly as cheap to manufacture in China as it used to be.
 
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oneMadRssn said:
Yea there are lots of stories like that. Also often quoted is the fact that if you make a minor change to a screw, you can get quantities of the new screw in the millions within hours in Shenzen.

I think, however, as the wealth in China increases, their tolerance of that sort of thing will decrease. As the work becomes more skilled, the workers will not tolerate that kind of employment. In small ways, this is already happening over there with wages. It's not nearly as cheap to manufacture in China as it used to be.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I don't think that 10/20 yrs from now China will be that cheap, especially if they stop playing dirty with their currency.
 
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