They did open a large datacenter in North Carolina recently for mobileme and iTunes hosting. Albeit for a 10 year tax break, but they would have received that from any state.
One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
11–20 of 43 posts
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#12They did open a large datacenter in North Carolina recently for mobileme and iTunes hosting. Albeit for a 10 year tax break, but they would have received that from any state.
Data centers usually don't have very many on-site employees, though. I think the idea here is to move the labor to the US.
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#13I think the author argues from a position of near-total ignorance.
America is a laughably bad place to base a manufacturing operation. Labor laws and regulations are ridiculously strict. Laborers are paid more and work less than anywhere else in the world. The science of managing global supply chains would not exist if the collocation of development and manufacturing were so economically opposed to each other.
He argues that Apple "could then easily — and justifiably — charge a premium for American-made iPods or iPhones or products we haven’t even seen yet." I don't believe I have ever read anything so fatuous. Price is dictated by what the consumer wants to pay, not the need to make a profit as the trade with China so persuasively demonstrates.
The future of manufacturing is Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. It will not be Detroit. It is hard to find anything other than wishful thinking in this article.
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#14"They could then easily and justifiably charge a premium for American-made iPods or iPhones or products we haven’t even seen yet" I really don't see this working out. Maybe I'm underestimating the purchasing patriotism of the wheat belt though.
The cases for these American-made products could be painted to look like an American flag. Think of the possibilities to market that to the wheat belt:)
That is not something that Apple would ever do (while Jobs is alive, at least).
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#15They did open a large datacenter in North Carolina recently for mobileme and iTunes hosting. Albeit for a 10 year tax break, but they would have received that from any state.
Data centers usually don't have very many on-site employees, though. I think the idea here is to move the labor to the US.
I agree. This says only 50-100 direct employees, once operational: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/07/maiden-nc-now-home...
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#16There are a few systemic issues preventing this from happening, but otherwise it would be a great idea for apple.
1) The Chinese people are impoverished by the Chinese government and kept that way by the dollar peg.
2) People in China would kill to be paid what we call minimum wage here in the USA... that is, if they were allowed to have guns.
3) The main expense in a modern manufacturing operation is not manpower but rather the automation in the manufacturing facility itself.
4) Most of the know-how to build these factories and the companies that manufacture automation equipment are located in China.
5) Making iphones in the USA would probably cost 5x as much as making them in China, and at most Americans would pay 20% more to have a "Made in USA" stamped on the iphone.
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#17Even though I'm European, I would feel a lot better purchasing goods manufactured in the States, or really anywhere in the Western World. I would be prepared to fork out a bit more money (within reasonable limits) for such products.
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#18I always cringe when I see this on a new Apple product after I purchase it: "Designed by Apple in California. Manufactured in China."
How powerful would it be if they were able to say "Designed and manufactured by Apple in California"...
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#19I think the split between asia making the hardware and america the software is working very well for both sides. The world is round after all. Of course it's cheaper for us this way, but there's also quite a bit of know-how accumulation in asia, that we might find hard to emulate. Like pumping out millions of high DPI Displays in just a few month - don't underestimate that. I would be really more concerned that asia…
Of course, that feat of producting millions of a product in a short period of time is also because of how much harder laborers for lower pay over there.
Re: One Bold Move Apple Has Not Yet Made (domestic manufacturing)
#20I always cringe when I see this on a new Apple product after I purchase it: "Designed by Apple in California. Manufactured in China." How powerful would it be if they were able to say "Designed and manufactured by Apple in California"...
It's actually manufactured in Mainland China(Not Taiwan), but it seems to be getting expensive there, so it is making more and more sense to move some production back to the US.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2429f498-82fd-11df-8b15-00144feabd...