[shuckles]

"There's a confusion about China. The popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor cost. I'm not sure what part of China they go to, but the truth is China stopped being the low-labor-cost country many years ago. And that is not the reason to come to China from a supply point of view. The reason is because of the skill, and the quantity of skill in one location and the type of skill it is...The products we do require really advanced tooling, and the precision that you have to have, the tooling and working with the materials that we do are state of the art. And the tooling skill is very deep here. In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I'm not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields..."

- Tim Cook, Apple: https://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/apple-ceo-tim-cook-this-...

[steve_adams_86]

I’m not trying to be cynical but to me this is why the USA and Canada has economically sabotaged themselves. We can’t possibly catch up to the skill, tooling, and pure ability of the Asian countries making our stuff.

Tim Cook points out that many believe it’s about labor costs, and that’s largely a matter of arrogance in my opinion. Many of us don’t even realize how few of us here can actually make the stuff we design. Even if we could afford our own labor, we couldn’t find the people to pay to do it anyway. How will we compete?

I’m actually curious if anyone knows what the solution to this is. It worries me quite a bit. I don’t see a bright future for North America because we can’t manufacture so many things and I think it’s going to eventually bite us very hard.

[someperson]

China's automotive industry isn't exactly considered world class.

It took Japan and South Korea several decades to develop a reputation for automotive quality, and many still swear off the quality of South Korean cars in particular.

[p1esk]

Wow. This quote has just changed my perception of “made in china” label. If this is the reality distortion field, it’s of Steve Jobs quality. Well done.

[someperson]

For what it's worth Apple (through Foxconn) are moving some production of iPhones to India. Samsung smartphones are all Made in Vietnam and have very good build quality.

The reason China has electronics supply chain skills is that for decades they've had massive foreign investment as companies outsource productions and do knowledge transfer through JVs (joint ventures).

For future industries this won't be the case (as its politically unpalatable and China is ageing quickly). The primacy China has in the electronics supply chain is already diminishing.

[shuckles]

Assembly is a small part of the production process, and assembly is what is being moved away from China for now.

[WrtCdEvrydy]

The best thing is that your suppliers are right there... need a box, or some sort of charger? factory's right up the road from yours.