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TAIPEI -- iPhones might one day soon carry "Made in America" labels.
Key Apple assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, has been studying the possibility of moving iPhone production to the U.S., sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.
"Apple asked both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two iPhone assemblers, in June to look into making iPhones in the U.S.," a source said. "Foxconn complied, while Pegatron declined to formulate such a plan due to cost concerns."
Foxconn, based in the gritty, industrial Tucheng district in suburban Taipei, and its smaller Taiwanese rival churn out more than 200 million iPhones annually from their massive Chinese campuses.
Another source said that while Foxconn had been working on the request from Apple Inc., its biggest customer that accounts for more than 50% of its sales, Chairman Terry Gou had been less enthusiastic due to an inevitable rise in production costs.
"Making iPhones in the U.S. means the cost will more than double," the source said.
The person added that one view among the Apple supply chain in Taiwan is that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may push the Cupertino, California-based tech titan to make a certain number of iPhone components at home.
According to research company IHS Markit, it costs about $225 for Apple to make an iPhone 7 with a 32GB memory, while the unsubsidized price for such a handset is $649.
Apple, Foxconn and Pegatron all declined to comment.
originally posted by: seasonal
According to this story, Apple asked Fox Conn and Pegatron to look into making the phones in the US, both complied, and refused to comment.
Wonder if Trump is influencing the Apple decision?
$225 per unit in Taiwan? i don't think so, perhaps $25, if that.
Sure, costs will rise if manufactured, or compulsory components manufactured in the USA but there is no way on this planet that it will cost $649 per unit.
$649 with 400% + markup profit perhaps
What do Apple care, they know people will pay
He absolutely is. Companies like Apple in particular have no issue whatsoever with using the cheapest most brutal foreign labor possible. For anyone who doesn't know, the Foxconn factories in China where Apple products are currently made force the employees to work in such horrible conditions that they had to install suicide nets around the buildings to stop the workers from jumping to their deaths just to escape. So, when Apple announces that they're trying to move the labor back into the U.S., you can bet it's because of strong political pressure and not the goodness of their hearts.
originally posted by: TheLotLizard
Just because Apple could move to the US doesn't mean that they would be using American workers. They would more than likely use the H1B visa workers shipped in in droves. Sure the pay would be higher for them but the money is just going to trickle out of the US to their home countries anyway.
originally posted by: TheLotLizard
Just because Apple could move to the US doesn't mean that they would be using American workers. They would more than likely use the H1B visa workers shipped in in droves. Sure the pay would be higher for them but the money is just going to trickle out of the US to their home countries anyway.
Neither candidate [Sander, Trump] could instantly make that happen. As Steve Jobs once told President Obama when he asked why Apple didn’t make phones in its home country, the company didn’t hire manufacturers in China only because labor is cheaper there. China also offered a skilled workforce and flexible factories and parts suppliers that can, Apple believes, retool more quickly than their American counterparts.
Lol, but first you have to convince everybody else it is OK to pay 10times the price for it..... heck, you guys already bitch about the prices of electronic stuff made in China, even though it is less than 50% of what we pay in Europe for the same thing.... if it is made in USA, no chilqd labor, minimum wages, and you pay 10x more..... knowing your mindset, good luck that. You have been brainwashed too much with the throw-away mindset.... first you noeed to learn how to re-use and then recycle everything, rather than buying new stuff every year
Realistically, if you look at the time and money involved in R&D it might be a realistic price. You ever wondered why you military or avionics radios cost a minimum of US$ 20 000?
If you have to pay 50 electronic engineers, 20 mechanical engineers, 100 draftsmen and a couple of hundred admin staff over 4 years to come up with a new design, and then a few hundred hours of very expensive EMI/EMC testing in the USA, how much do you think a single product like an iPhone will cost?
originally posted by: seasonal
Are you saying the phone is going to cost 6,495$ in the US?