> if Apple manufactured their devices in the US or Europe?
Unless I wildly misunderstand something, I'm pretty sure Apple could not produce X amount of devices at Y quality + rate for Z dollars in the US or Europe.
They couldn't hoard a quarter trillion dollars while doing it. It would be a nightmare if they only had a hundred and fifty billion to tide them over until their next big thing.
<<--The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products."
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Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
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They couldn't move the entire production to the US today no. It would have to be a gradual ramp up with suppliers coming online in tandem with the increase in production. There's no supply here because there is no market here, but if you build it they will come. It's not like it's impossible for an existing company to start up a specialized screw line, or for some startup to appear to fill the demand. It's a slow and painful process, but it's not like the Chinese manufacturing industry sprang up overnight either.
The real question is if the pain of switching over is worth it. Do these extraordinary costs in security and shipping outweigh the increased labor costs and potential for unionization in the US? Trump's tariffs might actually affect this calculation as well, but their long term stability is questionable, especially if you're looking 10 years out past the end of his term.
Well, the suppliers supply to other companies too, and they use raw materials from other suppliers themselves. Why would the they move to EU or US for a single customer? Apple squeezes their suppliers so there's no real love there to begin with. The whole manufacturing sector in China is a massive web of tiny vendors tightly coupled with each other. Its huge stash of rare earth metals certainly helps too. I don't believe we're going to see manufacturing move outside of China outside of a major world destabilizing event. I'd estimate that China is about a decade or two away from having its own cutting edge chips and its dependence on external vendors is going to diminish even further. That's not necessarily bad IMHO, every culture and country has their time on the top of the heap. I guess its China's turn.. in a "BIG WAY".
Unless I wildly misunderstand something, I'm pretty sure Apple could not produce X amount of devices at Y quality + rate for Z dollars in the US or Europe.