If an iPod were made in the USA completely, how much would it be? I am thinking a little more than what we pay for nowadays...
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPod If an iPod was made in USA, how much $?
- Thread starter princealfie
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Dell and Gateway assemble in the US of A because it's cheeper than assembling in china and shipping them over seas to america. Going by that it probably wouldn't be much more.benthewraith said:
But, of course, if by "made in the USA" you mean completely made in the USA - no imported parts - then you're looking at a very expensive piece of equipment, because Apple would need to ramp up production of parts which currently aren't made anywhere on this continent.
It would also depend on exactly how much profit Apple makes per iPod, and how much of that profit they'd be willing to surrender to try to keep the price competitive.
Don't forget, as well as the price being higher, the build quality would also be lower.
For example the difference between US made and Japanese made cars, asian workers tend to be more efficient than american ones as well as being cheaper.
For example the difference between US made and Japanese made cars, asian workers tend to be more efficient than american ones as well as being cheaper.
it would probably cost about $10 more, the major cost is the factory/machines NOT the labour
The quality wouldn't necessarily be poor, they still make cars in the UK (we used to make rubbish cars) for Japanese/US companies and they are some of the most efficient factories in the world. The major problem with this is that most electronics are made in the Far East which would need to be imported.
The quality wouldn't necessarily be poor, they still make cars in the UK (we used to make rubbish cars) for Japanese/US companies and they are some of the most efficient factories in the world. The major problem with this is that most electronics are made in the Far East which would need to be imported.
It would cost $6000, be 3X the size, and hold 70 songs.
Just kidding of course...
I wonder how "automated" the ipod production process is?
Just kidding of course...
I wonder how "automated" the ipod production process is?
Ipod made in US wouldn't cost a whole lot more than it costs today as cheap labor saves the comapnies some money but you also have to factor in shipping costs from Asia to North America which is definately not that cheap. Besides, labor cost in mass quanity produced goods really isn't the biggest expense as corporate world would want you to believe.
As far as quality goes, don't underestimate American workers and don't overestimate Asian workers as I had some crappy Made in China, Malaysia, India products in my lifetime too from big boys such as Sony or Panasonic.
And as far as Japanese cars go, somehow Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi can open up factories in USA (of course emloyed by American workers) and yet produce very reliable cars and yet "American" comapnies can't do the same on their own soil. I think it has to do with using higher quality build materials, better training, and higher quality control.
As far as quality goes, don't underestimate American workers and don't overestimate Asian workers as I had some crappy Made in China, Malaysia, India products in my lifetime too from big boys such as Sony or Panasonic.
And as far as Japanese cars go, somehow Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi can open up factories in USA (of course emloyed by American workers) and yet produce very reliable cars and yet "American" comapnies can't do the same on their own soil. I think it has to do with using higher quality build materials, better training, and higher quality control.
thejadedmonkey said:
Since when do either of them assemble in the U.S. anymore? The computers are assembled in China/Taiwan, then shipped to a U.S. facility for 'loading'. Only the software is loaded in the U.S.
This is especially true for notebooks. I don't think a single company assembles notebooks in the U.S. anymore.
As for assembling in China then shipping to the U.S. being expensive? SOCKS are made that way. They ship the cotton (or polyester, whatever,) to China, have the cotton turned into socks, then shipped back to the U.S. They are then sold at Wal-Mart for so much cheaper than pure made-in-the-USA socks could be sold for that all of the U.S. sock-making companies are going out of business. (Really, look it up, it's been on the news multiple times in the past couple years.)
$10 bucks more, that is unless the greedy CEO's wanted more so maybe $20 while employing illegal mexicans to avoid the minimum wage cost that congress has frozen from 10 yrs ago.. Its not about the worker its about the richest of the rich so they can become richer.
Two comments since my last post:
(a) Of course iPods are priced as high as Apple can get away with. That's what businesses do.
(b) What is the point of doing final assembly here? All the manufacture and assembly of all the subcomponents isn't important? If it were cheaper to do it here and/or better to do it here, Apple would do it here. If it's cheaper and/or better to do it elsewhere - and it is - then they'll do that. That's also what businesses do.
I've yet to see any compelling or even remotely encouraging reason to do iPod assembly here in the States, other than to promote the employment of poorly-educated low-skill US workers.
(a) Of course iPods are priced as high as Apple can get away with. That's what businesses do.
(b) What is the point of doing final assembly here? All the manufacture and assembly of all the subcomponents isn't important? If it were cheaper to do it here and/or better to do it here, Apple would do it here. If it's cheaper and/or better to do it elsewhere - and it is - then they'll do that. That's also what businesses do.
I've yet to see any compelling or even remotely encouraging reason to do iPod assembly here in the States, other than to promote the employment of poorly-educated low-skill US workers.
jsw said:
there wouldn't necessarily be a compelling business reason (otherwise they'd have done it, right?), but there may be a human rights reason. so i guess the question just becomes how valuable is that? and that's not to say that all factories in china (or any other non US place) are horrible, but the countries do lack some of the labor laws that are in place here, to provide a safeguard against the corporations' profit-first business practices.
i'd agree that in general the price wouldn't go up a huge amount. there are some things that, as jsw pointed out before, just aren't made in the US at all, so it'd be tough to have it be 100% made in the US. i think a more important issue is not whether it's made in the US, but just that it's NOT made in a place with inhumane working conditions (not talking about wages here)
interpolic said:
umm dude you are kind of wrong there. There are a lot of japanese cars that you buy that are built in the US.
Difference is the control standards the japanese companies use are tighter. The engineering to begin with it better. A lot of the "armerican cars" you buy are built more by forgeign than the japanese cars you buy. It be like 70% parts on some fords while only 30-40% parts on japanese and they are both built in the US.
Dont forget There are honda and toyata plants in the US pumping out cars that has the same high quility as all there other ones. Sorry the reason most of the Japanese cars are better is the engineering and design of them is the better. So the build quility would go up because the labor is better but in the end engineering is the limiting factor of them.
Dell, at least, assembles virtually all of the desktops it sells in the US in its North Carolina and Texas plants. Remember that desktops are pretty easy (read:cheap) to put together, and they're big and heavy to ship. Even Apple assembles some G5 towers stateside, probably for the same reason.ehurtley said:
IBM/Lenovo assembles a significant minority of its ThinkPads domestically, but I don't expect this to continue for long.
No way. Nobody opens union plants anymore. The only union manufacturing operations are older plants, especially those in the rust belt.robPOD said:
All new plants, including the ones that the Japanese and Korean automakers are opening, are non-union, and are usually located in the South where state laws are corporation-friendly.
I agree with that. We might have differing definitions of inhumane working conditions - especially as opposed to the alternative of no jobs in an area - but I agree in principle with you.jelloshotsrule said:
blitzkrieg79 said:
Ditto. It's the engineering behind the car that matters the most, because you could train a monkey to screw some parts together.
Plus, it has a lot to do with unions. It's very difficult for unionized employees to be fired. So if someone is slacking off, there's not a whole lot that can be done, because if you fire them, the union will back them up, and it's just not worth it. But with nonunionized plants, if someone's slacking, they can easily be given the pink slip, which I think helps encourage people to actually put forth their best effort.
jsw said:
again, not talking about wages (though there IS such a thing as too little, of course)... no job vs. job where you are raped and beaten is not a point of debate, in my mind. i'd imagine that the women certainly have it the worst.