[lucideer]

> I'm happy to see Apple doing this. Even if it's 50% press fluff, I think it'll make other companies in the industry think harder about their own practices because Apple commands such a great reputation.

Apple also operate at a scale most companies can't, which means that even without federal product exclusions Apple would still be in a better position to do this than most companies. Those companies in the industry can think all they want, but they're unlikely to get the same federal exclusion, and even less likely to be able to execute anything like this anywhere near as efficiently as Apple.

I really don't see how federal subsidies of any kind can be seen as benign when they explicitly target market giants.

[djsumdog]

This is also specifically the Mac Pro; which is just insanely expensive to begin with (even before this latest one). With this going mostly to businesses and corporate clients, they can afford to do more domestic assembly or even component sourcing and just pass it on to that limited customer base.

[flyingpenguin]

Also because this product is more targeted at business use, assembling it in the US may open the product for more customers. I work in defense and some of our HP computers have to come from a special division of HP that assembles the computers in the US.

[leoc]

The previous, "trashcan" Mac Pro was apparently also assembled in the US, and Apple wanted you to know it: https://youtu.be/IbWOQWw1wkM?t=110 . I assume that keeping the Mac Pro in the US is primarily a political/public-image decision (or indeed a public-spirited one), and maybe secondarily a way to maintain some expertise in manufacturing in the US, just in case.

BTW, the last time that Apple manufactured primarily or exclusively in the US was probably a long time ago. Back in the beige-case era it did a lot of assembly in places like Ireland.

[hinkley]

Also comparatively low volume. If you're going to research a big change to manufacturing processes you start with a lower volume unit.

If they did this with the iPhone then the shareholder meetings would be pandemonium.

Doesn't hurt that it's also the device with the least need for miniaturization. Even if from the standpoint of an American it's a little insulting that they're giving us a device that a monkey could build.

[bilbo0s]

Bingo!

This is the one product Apple could build anywhere on the planet and still make a profit. Will probably run between 30 and 50k for configurations that most effects houses would want in any case, so the higher cost of production is no sweat off their backs.

[esmi]

I wonder how true that is. The volume is probably going to be pretty low which means it will harder to amortize the NRE. It’s not just all the hardware engineers either. There probably a ton of specific software, not to mention drivers, in this product too.

[gtirloni]

One aspect of this that's usually pretty clear in these discussions is the huge chain of suppliers for anything that's available in China. If the US wants to tip the balance to the point that starts existing again in the US (and as efficient as it's in China today), Apple's subsidies could have a network effect that also benefits small US companies.

[lucideer]

That may be the case for some large companies (though I'd still be skeptical of the extent of the beneficial effect), but at least in Apple's case, they have a long history of curbing this network effect by securing exclusivity of their supply chain. See e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3194836

[gtirloni]

Good point and a nice opportunity to improve the fine printing in these agreements.

[baybal2]

> Apple also operate at a scale most companies can't, which means that even without federal product exclusions Apple would still be in a better position to do this than most companies. Those companies in the industry can think all they want, but they're unlikely to get the same federal exclusion, and even less likely to be able to execute anything like this anywhere near as efficiently as Apple.

This is also tells of that even an entity the size of Apple+Flex+Foxconn can't run a whole vertical manufacturing themselves.

It is kind of a myth that Foxconn came to South China when "there was nothing," and did everything in house. Foxconn was a whacking huge buyer of everything in Guangdong since the very beginning, going back to times when the biggest foreign manufacturers in China were Japanese (true, Toshiba, Shrap, NEC, Sanyo all had factories in the middle of what is now Futian district of Shenzhen)

[philwelch]

Apple’s scale is a limiting factor, not just a benefit. I’d be surprised to see MacBooks or iPhones made in Texas because the scale of manufacturing is so much higher than Mac Pro.

[lonelappde]

This is misinformation. The exclusive is equally available to anyone making a similar product.