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

[Zirel]

I have one word for you: robotics

This,

America may not win much, but China loses a lot more. In fact, China loses all their advantage: cheap labor.

For the people shouting about jobs? Want a job at Apple, don't hold a MsC? Apply for an Apple Store. That's an example of a minimal decent job. Or what next? Want to go back to riding horses so horse care takers have a job?

However, if Trump makes Apple to manufacture in America, other cell phone brands MUST also obey Trump or face the 45% "pass the Trump Wall tax".

 

[avanpelt]

I'm just waiting for a repatriation tax holiday at somewhere between 1% to 5% so we can watch Apple bring boatloads of cash home. That might even make Tim Cook and company glad that Trump beat Hillary.

 

[Rogifan]

I would pay a 10% premium over and above the current prices for an iPhone that was assembled in America as long as Americans -- not robots -- actually assembled the phone. Unfortunately, I fear that the phones would require more than a 10% markup to be assembled in this country. If the markup was more than 10%, that gets to be a little bit more of a dicey proposition considering the phone I would buy is already $749 plus tax.

I suppose Apple could create a special edition made in the USA phone but if the non-made in the USA phone is cheaper that's the one I'll be buying. I'd be curious to know which one all of the white working class from Appalachia would buy. Do they look at manufacturing labels when they're shopping at Walmart?

 

[ChrisA]

For an American company that has amassed so much wealth there is no reason why Apple's profit from each phone can be shaved by a nominal amount to incorporate America labor. In fact they are probably in the unique position to do so, as they are going to sell a boatload of iphones year over year.

I challenge you and others who say this to "do the math". How much money (exactly) can be shaved and how many workers is this distributed over and what does this work out to in terms of dollars per hours for the American worker? Use more exact terms than "boatload" and divide that over the number of factory workers. Use Google to get the numbers.

Yes what you say can be done but if you do bother to work out the exact details you end out with McDonalsds and Walmart wages at best. The pay is SO LOW that the government must step in and hand out more money to the people in the form of an ATM card for food, free school lunches, housing subsidies and so on. People cannot afford to work at McDonalds if not for the Government backfilling their paycheck. This amounts to taxpayer subsidizing McDonald's payroll.

 

[zhaoxin]

This,

America may not win much, but China loses a lot more. In fact, China loses all their advantage: cheap labor.

So who do you think make the robots? Chinese!

 

[Stella]

Apple could reduce its profit margins...

 

[KdParker]

The report claims Apple asked both Foxconn and rival supplier Pegatron, which denied the request, to look into making iPhones stateside, although Foxconn chairman Terry Gou is said to be less enthusiastic about the idea due to inevitably higher production costs in the United States compared to China.

But, for now, the idea likely remains a stretch even in light of new political pressures.


No, you didn't. So I spent my own time copying and pasting these lines from the article. Add onto that fact of using common sense: Hmm, Donald Trump is now President-elect. Is it just a coincidence that Apple is in talks just this year? Why not 2015? 2014? etc. Hm, maybe something major happened.... Hm.... Maybe Donald Trump being elected? He did comment on Apple's practices....


But keep your ears plugged in and drown out common sense.

If you think business is going to cave to what Drumpt might do or say. You have a rude awakening coming.

 

[samiwas]

Better than serving french fries at McDonalds.

McDonalds pays more than minimum wage...

 

[ElZeus]

He would've gotten the left's vote if the slogan was "Make Apple Great Again!"

 

[samiwas]

Apple could reduce its profit margins...

Bwaaahaha...this is America, pal...you don't **** with profit margins.

 

[avanpelt]

I suppose Apple could create a special edition made in the USA phone but if the non-made in the USA phone is cheaper that's the one I'll be buying. I'd be curious to know which one all of the white working class from Appalachia would buy. Do they look at manufacturing labels when they're shopping at Walmart?

I can see it now..."PRODUCT USA" branding.

If they ever did that, even with the higher cost of the phone (as long as it wasn't totally unreasonable), it would generate enormous positive PR for Apple and likely cause them to completely obliterate past sales records.

Individuals with lower incomes may not buy that version of the iPhone but there are plenty of people who would. Also, I think Apple doing something like that could potentially jumpstart a Made in America revolution for a lot of American companies.

 

[jmgregory1]

Yes, to stop the outflow of jobs from the U.S. But they are not the cause. There position is just their prescription to stop it. Very different than what the OP was saying.

As I said in my first post -- unions keep acting like nothing in the world workforce has changed. But it did and companies took notice and left. But also look to the states where foreign companies come to set up car factories in the U.S.. It's predominanly right-to-work states. And almost always when the unions come in the employees quickly escort them to the door becaue, in spite of not being union shops the employees are well paid and treated well. Going union would mostly mean just another hand grabbing a chunk of their pay check.

The republicans have been burning the candle at both ends. They give big businesses tax breaks, promoting it to the under-educated as a way to generate new and or higher paying jobs (the trickle down economics idea), then when businesses instead use those breaks to pad the pockets of their shareholders (as they're supposed to be doing), they use the companies as scapegoats to blame for doing exactly what every business should be doing - trying to make maximum profit at minimum expense.

The real issue is that we believe any politician is looking out for us, when most are simply serving themselves first and foremost. No government healthcare for you, because it's bad and you'll not like it and service will go down - but it's ok for me and my fellow politicians to get completely free government healthcare for life...I find it crazy that both ends of the political spectrum don't flip out about this. I want it, more than I want the "freedom" to chose an insurance company health plan that may or may not be accepted by my doctor or hospital...but I digress.

The whole idea of government forcing or even nudging companies to do right by society is just asking far too much. Not to say that some companies don't do just that, but it really goes against most public and private company mandates.

 

[zhaoxin]

Apple could reduce its profit margins...

If Apple does that, then it is not capitalism, it is communism.

 

[Benjamins]

This,

America may not win much, but China loses a lot more. In fact, China loses all their advantage: cheap labor.

For the people shouting about jobs? Want a job at Apple, don't hold a MsC? Apply for an Apple Store. That's an example of a minimal decent job. Or what next? Want to go back to riding horses so horse care takers have a job?

However, if Trump makes Apple to manufacture in America, other cell phone brands MUST also obey Trump or face the 45% "pass the Trump Wall tax".

So let's say all Google/Apple/Microsoft product goes up 45% in price, either because it's made in US or tariff. Then what happens.

Chinese companies are going to take over the void created by the ultra expensive US company products.

You just killed the one thing going for the US.

 

[jamezr]

I think in the long term if we don't want humanity to starve, we will have to pass legislation that strictly regulates the use of automation. Because with the developments in AI, automation is already replacing even skilled workers. Automation could conceivably replace most of our jobs eventually if left unchecked. A hard thought out and fought for balance is going to have to be struck, and sooner rather than later.

Exactly...well said and thought out....... I would add that if automation or AI is going to replace a lot of jobs that humans do, we need to have something for people to do. There needs to be a shift for humans to earn a living at something else.

 

[Rogifan]

I can see it now..."PRODUCT USA" branding.

If they ever did that, even with the higher cost of the phone (as long as it wasn't totally unreasonable), it would generate enormous positive PR for Apple and likely cause them to completely obliterate past sales records.

Individuals with lower incomes may not buy that version of the iPhone but there are plenty of people who would. Also, I think Apple doing something like that could potentially jumpstart a Made in America revolution for a lot of American companies.

Do it with a low volume new product then. Sort of like they did with the Mac Pro. If they ever build a car let that be manufactured in the USA.

 

[DudeDad]

Say whatever you want about Trump, but if this goes through, that would be huge. Potentially tons of new jobs for one of the largest tech companies available to people in this country?

And when they have to pay $15/hour versus $15/week, and the supply chain is overseas...yeah, not happening. Let's be real. Don't forget the training, since those clamoring for manufacturing jobs here lack the skills...what they could do before is done by robotics. Unless you want to pay $1,500 for an iphone, that is.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Some more info on manufacturing for those gloom and doom about people not wanting to work in manufacturing jobs, robots etc.
Right now we have 12M people working in manufacturing, down from 2006 (14M) but up from the post crisis let's say 2011 (11M). If anything at all, jobs are coming back, but not at full strength (which IS a big problem).

First column in Jan, second is Feb and so on (#'s in thousands)

2006 14210 14209 14214 14226 14203 14213 14188 14159 14125 14075 14041 14015
2007 14008 13997 13970 13945 13929 13911 13889 13828 13790 13764 13757 13746
2008 13725 13696 13659 13599 13564 13504 13430 13358 13275 13147 13034 12850
2009 12561 12380 12208 12030 11862 11726 11668 11626 11591 11538 11509 11475
2010 11460 11453 11453 11489 11525 11545 11561 11553 11563 11562 11585 11595
2011 11621 11654 11675 11704 11713 11727 11746 11764 11769 11780 11770 11802
2012 11836 11859 11899 11915 11929 11942 11967 11961 11952 11959 11948 11960
2013 11980 12001 12003 12004 12002 12002 11983 12014 12029 12050 12076 12086
2014 12094 12115 12125 12139 12146 12171 12189 12205 12217 12243 12272 12294
2015 12311 12315 12318 12316 12324 12325 12336 12318 12309 12311 12314 12320
2016 12338 12322 12293 12298 12281 12289 12291 12275 12267 12258

Seasonally Adjusted
Series Title: All employees, thousands, manufacturing, seasonally adjusted
Super Sector: Manufacturing
Industry: Manufacturing
NAICS Code: -
Data Type: ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS

 

[Benjamins]

Do it with a low volume new product then. Sort of like they did with the Mac Pro. If they ever build a car let that be manufactured in the USA.

Tesla already make their cars in the US.

 

[Rogifan]

I think in the long term if we don't want humanity to starve, we will have to pass legislation that strictly regulates the use of automation. Because with the developments in AI, automation is already replacing even skilled workers. Automation could conceivably replace most of our jobs eventually if left unchecked. A hard thought out and fought for balance is going to have to be struck, and sooner rather than later.

I use self checkout at the grocery store. Should that be banned?

 

[Quu]

Gonna be tough to get all the components that go into an iPhone stateside. Like the article says all the bits like the display, memory, storage and processor are fabricated in Asia and there would be little point to assembling iPhones in America if all the parts are still manufactured in Asia.

From what we know Apple pays Foxconn under 10 dollars per iPhone for assembly so that's not a big enough reason to only move assembly stateside it would need to be all the individual components manufactured there too or at-least the majority of them to make it worthwhile.

 

[MrGuder]

iPhone made in the USA by machine robots (made in China) to curb costs lol

 

[medazinol]

Hell, setup shop in Canada things are 35% cheaper here because of the weak CAD $.

 

[nwcs]

I will agree with Tim on this. The US did stop promoting vocational studies/training in secondary and post-secondary education. I think some believe a vocation or trade is somehow "lesser" when it's nothing of the kind. I would like to see more dignity assigned to trades and vocations.

 

[agsystems]

I have one word for you: robotics

really all this desire to have phone made here won't create the thousands of jobs people think will come up - if you look how Tesla makes their cars - even the parts are made in house.