Apple is starting to assemble Macs in America again.

[onehandle]

No details on if it's an Apple plant or a third party company. Let's hope this is a trend.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/03/new-imac-assembled-in-usa

Additional link/info:

As for Apple's future plans with domestic assembly, Cook said at the D10: All Things Digital conference in May that he wanted more American-made Apple products, but noted workforce limitations when compared to China.

"We will do as many of these things [in America] as we can do," Cook said, "and you can bet that we'll use the whole of our influence to do this."

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/12/02/some-new-imacs-marked-as-being-assembled-in-america

[madokie]

1. Problem loading page

is what I get when I try the link

[onehandle]

2. Working for me, but here is another source...

As for Apple's future plans with domestic assembly, Cook said at the D10: All Things Digital conference in May that he wanted more American-made Apple products, but noted workforce limitations when compared to China.

"We will do as many of these things [in America] as we can do," Cook said, "and you can bet that we'll use the whole of our influence to do this."

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/12/02/some-new-imacs-marked-as-being-assembled-in-america

[meow2u3]

8. Workforce limitations translated

Americans expect a living wage and we want cheap labor.

[Capt. Obvious]

3. Too late for this guy

[FarCenter]

4. Foxconn maquiladora in Juarez?

[hobbit709]

5. But guess where all the parts are made?

[onehandle]

10. Same place as all computers. nt

[LiberalArkie]

14. Lets see. Texas for CPU. Kentucky for gorilla glass

God only knows where else. But intel stuff in the desk top comes from Arizona or Nevada. Once the robots get better, then the china labor will be minor. Using the Chinese labor right now is cheaper than the robots

[hobbit709]

15. The silicon wafers may be etched here

Then they get shipped to places like Malaysia to be separated and encapsulated. Then they get shipped back here for testing and sale.
My brother worked QC at one of their plants.
Look closely at any chip and see what country it says on it.

[Javaman]

16. I know of a small company that makes some

of the very small electronic contacts used in iPhones is located in Berkeley. nt

[Xithras]

6. Apple wouldn't directly manufacture anything in the US.

Apple got out of the manufacturing business in 1996, and since then EVERYTHING with an Apple logo on it has been built by a subcontractor. Most of their USA-made products created after 1996 were actually built by a company in Colorado under contract to Apple.

As a company, Apple has no supply chain for parts, no management experience in running manufacturing facilities (they laid the last of their manufacturing leads off more than 15 years ago), and most importantly, no buildings or facilities to do it in.

If Apple is selling devices that are assembled in the USA, then they've simply found another subcontractor to put the devices together for them. That would still be a plus for American jobs, but Apple isn't going to be offering anyone any well-paid manufacturing positions anytime soon. Apple's entire structure is based around the subcontracting model, and there's no practical reason for them to move away from it.

On edit: Shame on me, but I forgot that Apple actually ran their Elk Grove plant until 2004. I remembered right after I clicked Submit! I'm suprised that I forgot that, as a number of my friends actually worked there. My mother in law also worked in their old San Jose plant for much of the 80's, until the company laid off most of its manufacturing employees as it teetered on the verge of bankruptcy.

The Elk Grove plant did technically "manufacture" much longer than the other locations, though they weren't actually used for primary assembly by Apple after the mid-90's. It became (and remains today) a primary distribution center for the West Coast. They still did manufacturing, but it became less and less of the facilities focus. Still, they didn't actually shutter the last of the lines until 2004.

[FreeJoe]

7. I expect US manufacturing to increase during the next decade

I don't think that manufacturing jobs will increase all that much, but manufacturing overall will grow. We have one of the most productive labor forces in the world. When you mix in increasingly low commodity prices in the US and an increase in robotics, I think we're looking at a US manufacturing boom.

[Xithras]

9. The problem with electronics manufacturing is that the US no longer has a supply chain.

Computers, phones, and other electronic devices are made of sub-components that must be sourced from other vendors. Everything from LCD panels to diodes and resistors for circuit boards. There was a time, prior to the mid-80's, when the US had companies that could make every component needed for an electronic device. Slowly, component by component, these companies went under as cheaper Asian-made competitors squeezed them out.

By the mid-90's we had reached a tipping point. American electronics manufacturers were building electronic devices in which the MAJORITY of the internal components were imported from overseas. The shipping costs were increasing the costs of production. In that situation, it made economic sense to simply move the manufacturing overseas closer to the supply chain, lowering production costs. Once primary production went overseas, the remaining U.S. based component manufacturers were put at a serious competitive disadvantage, and either had to outsource THEIR production overseas, or were shut out by new competitors in Asia who not only had lower production costs, but now had the advantage of lower shipping costs. Most of them just went out of business.

If an American company were to attempt to manufacture electronic devices here today, they would have to import virtually ALL of the internal component parts from Asia. In theory, if a number of companies did this, it might be possible to rebuild the supply chain here in the U.S., but there's no practical or competitive advantage for a manufacturer to start the process in the first place. The increased supply chain costs would mean that their product would ALWAYS be more expensive than a competitor manufactured in China, even if payroll and tax costs were EQUAL.

I understand that people are hopeful, but I just don't see it happening. Steve Jobs himself said as much, and for the very same reasons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[onehandle]

11. Some is better than none. Apple has created tens of thousands of American jobs recently.

And have created hundreds of thousands of vendor and developer jobs here, much like the Automotive industry did.

[Xithras]

13. The discussion was about manufacturing.

Apple, like the rest of the computer industry, has created countless jobs for software developers. As a longtime computer programmer whose job now revolves around building Internet and mobile applications, I can appreciate that.

Manufacturing, however, is gone. I understand why so many want it back, as it provided quality jobs to unskilled and semi-skilled workers, but the underlying economics aren't here for it to happen. Barring an economic shift (dollar collapse, tariffs, etc) that dramatically increases the cost of importing foreign manufactured goods, those factory-type jobs are not coming back.

[leftstreet]

12. And the pay is probably the same you get assembling Big Macs

Much like the 'rejuvenated' US auto industry