[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.