[awinder]

Yeah, this is a super-weird anti-Apple flex. There’s a lot of problems with it, mostly that damn near every tech product is manufactured in China, or using majority components manufactured in China, etc. But here’s the biggest problem I have. China deliberately wanted to focus on this type of manufacturing for decades. You don’t just decide you’re going to manufacture iPhones and then poof in 6 months you’re running world-class operations. It would take untold time and dollars to develop these capabilities in a human workforce in America. What you’re all hopped up about, has literally no chance of happening.

I too have qualms with what is going on in China, but like everything that happens in this life, I’m flipping petrified of how much damage some reactionary american screed might do.

[ppf]

China accepts child labour, and runs ethnic concentration camps. Have you forgotten that standing up for what is right can result in negative personal consequences? Or have Americans gotten so used to consequence-free "protesting" of whatever is the current bogeyman in their safe country? This might be the most spineless and gutless comment I have seen on HN. If you ever wonder how people accept large-scale atrocities, here is the answer. They don't want any disruption to their supply of affordable iPhones.

[awinder]

If this is the most spineless and gutless comment you’ve read on hackernews, then welcome to hackernews and I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the first comment you read here. Jesus, what an overreaction.

[ppf]

Fine, but don't pretend you care about human rights in any context.

[awinder]

Get help. Seriously. I don’t know why you’re keying in on me for making a comment about how Apple can’t just magically relocate millions of jobs to the US as being some kind of bad person. I’m purposefully not discussing the moral side of this, I’m rebutting the parents claim that Apple should just throw money at this and fix it. They can’t.

[ppf]

Your first paragraph was on-point. I'm talking about the second one:

> I too have qualms with what is going on in China, but like everything that happens in this life, I’m flipping petrified of how much damage some reactionary american screed might do.

You make a moral statement about the activities of China, and then you say you're scared of the repercussions of taking any action.

[14]

You do realize how much money Apple makes right? They absolutely have the money to run these capabilities in America. They also have enough money they could do it in a timely manner. What they know would happen is the cost to actually manufacture an iPhone would shoot through the roof and they would be left either making less profit to sell the phone at the same price point it always has been, or they will have to dramatically reduce shareholder return. They don't want to do either of those things obviously because right now new iPhone cost around 1000$ and it is probably close to what the market will bare. So their only option would be reduce shareholder return and I think that is the only thing stopping them from moving home. Simply put they would not make as much profit.

[pwinnski]

Is your argument that their manufacturing costs would increase by less than 30%? Or that you expect Apple to fold as a company?

You state "they absolutely have the money to run these capabilities in America." Apple's published margin on hardware is 30%, so if manufacturing in America increases costs by 30%, Apple no longer makes a profit selling hardware. If manufacturing increases costs by more than 30%, Apple starts losing money selling hardware.

Big numbers are big because Apple is selling many, many, many phones. That also means that adding to the cost of manufacturing by even a small amount per unit immediately chews up a lot of those outrageous profits.

[tooltalk]

Apple buys iPhones wholesale from CMs (contract manufacturer) like Foxconn, Pegatron, etc for only $250-$350 and sells them for around $799-$1000 retail. The cost of labor (ie, final assembly; aka, manufacturing) in iPhone BOM, often born by CM's, is around $10-$12 per device.