"The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components."
Is this sort of a "if you don't make us pay tarrifs on component X, we'll build component Y in the USA?"
Also 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.
> Is this sort of a "if you don't make us pay tarrifs on component X, we'll build component Y in the USA?"
Yes, that would be my assessment.
Here are the criteria used by the US Govt to grant the tariff waiver [1]:
> Whether the particular product is available only from China and specifically whether the particular product and/or a comparable product is available from sources in the United States and/or third countries.
> Whether the imposition of additional duties on the particular product would cause severe economic harm to the requestor or other U.S. interests.
> Whether the particular product is strategically important or related to “Made in China 2025” or other Chinese industrial programs.
> 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.
>Is this sort of a "if you don't make us pay tarrifs on component X, we'll build component Y in the USA?"
They're basically responding to these stories by WSJ and Bloomberg saying that they're moving production of the Mac Pro back to China. That was never confirmed by Apple and Tim Cook denied it when asked on an earnings call.
I'm pretty sure that it's referring to the requirements to state that a product is "Made in the USA". Typically it means that atleast 51% of the components are USA-sourced.
I think that Apple just got a waiver from the Govt to say the Mac Pro is "Made in the USA" despite not meeting whatever arbitrary guidelines to fulfill that requirement.
Does it matter in which country the robots are doing the work? Ultimately that's the future we're shooting for, so this appears to be re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.
That line is critical because it means they will effectively be manufactured in China but some token amount of assembly will happen in the U.S. so that they appear to be seen to be manufacturing in the U.S. when in fact they are made in China in any meaningful non-political sense.
Royalty doesn't cook their own meals. Their time is more valuable than that.
Likewise, America doesn't make it's own underwear. We have China to do that. Similarly, they have us to make safe airplanes and complex satellite equipment.
Closing trade to the extent that we're making our own underwear INSTEAD of satellite parts can't really be chocked up as a win. It just promotes the notion that China should build their own satellite parts and we should make our own underwear.
If making underwear isn't enough to feed a Chinese family, why would we with that destiny upon American families?
Tl;Dr, America makes complex, high quality machines and equipment. Refined oil products. Things that require quality over quantity. Things that you can't substitute a generic for. Those are our bread and butter exports. Cheap crap that gets thrown away, like Apple computers, are China's bread and butter. We can either accept these facts and balance markets accordingly (and stay on top at the same time) or we can compartmentalize the world and all be stuck spinning our wheels and duplicating lots of effort, cold-war style, but with stupid-crap like personal computers instead of nuclear weapons and spaceships.
I'm interested as to whether this has a quality impact, or if it is purely a marketing gimmick and tax thing.
I closely with the fashion industry in the UK, and one of the things that surprised me a lot was finding out that "Made in the UK", at least for clothing, meant lower quality. While we used to have great manufacturing expertise, that has all been lost over the last 50+ years as manufacturing was shifted overseas.
Now not only is getting clothing manufactured elsewhere cheaper, it's also better quality, going against what consumers typically expect, because we lost the skills that we had.
I'd imagine that the US has similarly lost manufacturing skills as operations have been outsourced. Does US-based manufacturing (of computers in this case) actually result in higher quality products? Is there any evidence of this? Or is it all just PR and looking good for politicians?
It's not just skills, it's the supply chain surrounding the manufacturing. There's several articles you can find with a quick Google search about how Apple had so much trouble finding a source for small screws for the Mac in the USA, whereas in China it was trivial to find a supplier that could provide the massive quantities needed. So building the thing in the USA will probably end up costing a lot more, not just because of US labor rates at the final assembly factory (which probably isn't that much of a factor really), but because all the logistics leading up to that point in the manufacture are now so much less efficient.
It depends. If you are buying high priced stuff (i.e. Borders wool) then it is going to be high quality.
What people don't realise is that in the North there are people working for 50p/£1 an hour making clothes for Primark et al (some of this isn't even branded as "Made in the UK").
So the reason quality is lower is because no-one will pay for quality anymore. These jobs go overseas or they done here under illegal/slave labour conditions (the UK is a bit like the U.S. in that there is basically no oversight of these breaches).
Also the "skills" required aren't that high. That is why the jobs went to China.
Watch American Factory on Netflix. It would support a bit of what you are saying... Not only is the glass factory in China way more efficient, at least through the end of the documentary, the quality of the Chinese glass also appears to be higher. Of course, in that case there's the confounding factor of the age of the factories which complicates the comparison, but it is all in all a very interesting documentary which looks at this exact question.
> I closely with the fashion industry in the UK, and one of the things that surprised me a lot was finding out that "Made in the UK", at least for clothing, meant lower quality. While we used to have great manufacturing expertise, that has all been lost over the last 50+ years as manufacturing was shifted overseas.
Reminds me of the IT Crowd episode with the fire extinguisher made in Great Britain. As an American, I didn't realize "made in the UK" had that reputation before watching that episode.
Where something is made has almost no bearing on quality. There may be some loose correlations, but you will find both high quality and low quality manufacturing in the US, UK, France, China, Vietnam, Turkey, etc.. Some countries, like Japan and Germany, manufacture certain items for which the “quality” is synonymous with the item or brand itself (Leica, Japanese knives, etc.), but that’s about it.
What’s more is that “Made in USA” doesn’t even really tell you much about where something is actually made. It’s more an indicator of where something is assembled. So many things that say “Made in USA” are made from 100% Chinese components and just assembled or “finished” in the US. The standard is so loosely enforced by the FTC that it’s almost meaningless. And while the language of the law about country of origin seems explicit (“all or virtually all”), it’s anything but. Even flagrant violations can often act with impunity for decades, only to be tied up in court for years more if the FTC takes action. Most companies don’t even exist long enough to get caught when they are outright lying.
Globalism happened and there is no going back. Country of origin is pretty meaningless.
This is likely tied into something I call "the tyranny of the China price". Basically, years of offshore production have set customer expectations and market-competitive pricing at a certain level. If you want to on-shore production, you have to achieve that same price point (or close to it) to sell your product. Of course, on-shore labor costs are probably going to be higher, as are rent, materials, environmental compliance, and probably a few supply chain contributions. So to meet the price point, you either have to automate everything (reduce labor cost) or cut corners on something else. In a lot of cases, that "something else" is some combination of materials quality and quality assurance.
In summary, it's not that producing on-shore inherently reduces quality or that there's no domestic expertise left, it's that to maintain the same end product quality you often have to significantly increase your price point, and mass-market customers usually don't like that.
>and one of the things that surprised me a lot was finding out that "Made in the UK", at least for clothing, meant lower quality.
Again it depends. There are lots of thing Made in UK that are extremely good but just not very well known. The Brits, may be due to their tradition and culture are just not very good at marketing. Sunpel [1] 99% made in UK and still one of the best quality clothing I have ever had.
( I think their had their first product using Spanish Cotton only in the past few years, and their explanation was it had nothing to do with Cost, it was Simply the best they could find. )
And of coz there are lots of Suit and High End Bespoke items in London, that aren't really known in general public.
Even if the US has lost its manufacturing capability and this leads to a worse quality more expensive product, it's worth it. Do we want to go down the path of not being able to produce anything and outsourcing all our products until we have no talent? Where will that leave us in a generation?
I recommend reading Crouching Tiger about US China relationships. Manufacturing and sustainability is very important to war fighting capability past day X (where X is when our current inventory is attrited). So this is something those seeking our security will want regardless.
The last thing to mention is about comparisons with countries which do not have the same labor laws / pollution laws. Yes, given the same assumptions they will make stuff cheaper. They don't have the same regulations. This is one reason why tariffs to help offset this imbalance (minus shipping across a gigantic ocean) are necessary - regardless of political views. Either the US has the same regulations as the competitor or they offset the difference somehow (I get it that our current tariffs are much more than that, I'm simply mentioning tariffs in general).
I think the change is that Apple isn't closing the plant all-together.
"Apple made the previous Mac Pro in Austin, Texas, beginning in 2013. But with the new Mac Pro unveiled this month being made in China, Apple is "shifting abroad production of what had been its only major device assembled in the US as trade tensions escalate between the Trump administration and Beijing," The Wall Street Journal reported today."
That said, this all feels somewhat self-inflicted. One wonders if the tariffs on imports from China hadn't been put in place, perhaps Apple wouldn't have wanted to move production of this model out of the US.
With the previous Mac Pro they made a big deal right away from the fact that it was being made in Texas. Since they didn't do that this time around many people were wondering if they shifted production over seas. This is Apple quelling those rumors. Also:
> The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro.
Based on the price, I figured it was going to be made in outer space:
"When you look at how much the components inside the base Mac Pro actually cost, you'll be shocked at Apple's profit margin. But when you understand why Apple is charging you so much cash, you'll just be angry." [0]
The fact that you pay a premium for the Apple brand shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. I've been proudly buying $200 Android phones and $500 laptops for years.
I figured the new Mac Pro was priced as such along with that monitor and stand as to spit in the faces of the fans that had been badgering Apple for years over the debacle that the Mac Pro had become. As in, Apple said fine, but you aren't the customer we want and you cannot afford it. Then again I am not even sure Apple wants any of that market, the machine by looks and its monitor seemed tailored made for influencers. that monitor stand was just a shark jumping moment if ever.
Seriously though, while the modular portion is an interesting take it is a convoluted method to deliver the upgrade path people wanted but worse it traps people to Apple which of course benefits Apple.
FWIW, custom configurations of iMacs are US assembled too. For the EU I think that work is done in Ireland.
Out of all the product's in Apple's lineup, the Mac Pro is probably the one with the smallest price differential relative to competitors' products. Go ahead and spec out a similar workstation from Dell or HP: you won't see much difference in price.
Base price doesn't really matter to the buyers of these machines anyway, they're not consumer products. These are being used by professionals who generate revenue way in excess of what the computer costs, and stuff like enterprise support contracts (where you can have a replacement machine at your desk ASAP if yours dies, because otherwise you're losing money by the second) matters much more to them.
The articles you linked are just dumb clickbait using the logic of consumer product pricing where it isn't applicable.
"Finding a motherboard to match the Mac Pro's specs wasn't entirely straightforward. So, for the purposes of our price comparison, I simply searched for "Xeon motherboard" on Amazon and picked the most expensive."
They received a few minor tariff exemptions, but not enough to matter. The warp and woof of this move is fundamentally moral, not economic. The dream of perfect international comparative advantage is not likely to be achieved when one country is run like a trillion-dollar mafia. Hence, a moral push to assemble in the U.S. I think this will make sense to a ton of consumers around the world.
On a personal note, I was not going to buy one, but now I’ll buy two.
To those posting "this is not newsworthy since it's been unchanged since 2013", you must consider the radically different economic context, namely the threat of tarrifs (which was not as much of an issue in 2013).
Apple's statements on the reason for non-US based manufacturing has been that it is not the labor cost but the (lack of domestic) skills that drive them abroad.
The Mac Pro, a low volume flagship product, was long the only US manufactured product, until Apple announced it was moving offshore a well.
Apple gets tariff exemptions on the import of the parts for the machines, so it can do the assembly in Austin.
Meanwhile Apple is shifting a very significant volume of manufacturing away from China to ... India.
Both Apple and the Administration get to send out 'feel good' PR.
What is that, 0.01% of their production? I'm a Mac Pro 2013 user, still haven't met another.
This headline is equivalent to "Toyota manufacturing floor mats in the US" only it is made to sound sexy because it is apple and people mentally conflate Mac Pro with MacBook Pro.
I recently bought a domestic vehicle. What a mistake. The assembly quality is awful. I don't know how they assemble the body panels I thought it was all done by robots, but robots would not miss spot welds or misalign parts and retry welds after a miss. I think there was just a bunch of drunks manually assembling that Ford vehicle. The paint is peeling on the roof of a NEW car.
From my experience, don't buy made in the US. It is too expensive and the quality is bad. I think the pay structure in this country is such that nobody is paid "enough" to do quality work.
Toyota builds some of their trucks here and puts a sticker on the back "built here, lives here" or something of that nature. I wonder if I can get something similar for my Mac Pro?
Good. It'd be also wise of them to diversify to other countries besides China. They started doing so in India (after India basically banned their shit if they don't make it there), but I hope they now see the lack of wisdom in putting all their hundred billion dollar eggs into one basket.
As to Mac Pro, even if it's mostly assembled by robots, at that price level it better be assembled by red blooded, gun totin', tobacco chewin' Texan robots. There's just no excuse to do otherwise when your computer costs like a midsize car.
To the extent that Apple is successful at lobbying for tariff exemptions, what has happened is that Apple has diverted resources from the thing it is actually good at (hardware and software) and has diverted them into legal and lobbying fees.
We can't expect firms to excel in their core competencies when they are hamstrung by politicians that are trying to reduce economic freedom worldwide.
Apple Computer exists because of economic freedom, not in spite of it.
It's odd to me to describe that as "over $1 billion".
Either it's 2B, or the other part of that math isn't correct.
"To date, Apple has invested over $1 billion in American companies from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund — deploying the entire $1 billion initial investment and 20 percent of the $5 billion it subsequently committed to spend."
[+] [-] bengotow|6 years ago|reply
"The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components."
Is this sort of a "if you don't make us pay tarrifs on component X, we'll build component Y in the USA?"
Also 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.
[+] [-] wyldfire|6 years ago|reply
Yes, that would be my assessment.
Here are the criteria used by the US Govt to grant the tariff waiver [1]:
> Whether the particular product is available only from China and specifically whether the particular product and/or a comparable product is available from sources in the United States and/or third countries.
> Whether the imposition of additional duties on the particular product would cause severe economic harm to the requestor or other U.S. interests.
> Whether the particular product is strategically important or related to “Made in China 2025” or other Chinese industrial programs.
[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/09/20/2019-20...
[+] [-] lucideer|6 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Despegar|6 years ago|reply
They're basically responding to these stories by WSJ and Bloomberg saying that they're moving production of the Mac Pro back to China. That was never confirmed by Apple and Tim Cook denied it when asked on an earnings call.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-moves-mac-pro-production-...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-23/apple-see...
[+] [-] squilliam|6 years ago|reply
I think that Apple just got a waiver from the Govt to say the Mac Pro is "Made in the USA" despite not meeting whatever arbitrary guidelines to fulfill that requirement.
[+] [-] csdreamer7|6 years ago|reply
According to GamersNexus on Youtube; power supplies and cases (imported steel) were hit very hard by tariffs.
Caselabs, a maker of cases in the US, went out of business partially due to tariffs on imported steel driving up prices.
PCBs such as motherboards and graphics cards just moved to Taiwan.
Even cheap power supplies went up by $20 at least on average based on my anecdotal price browsing on PCPartPicker.
[+] [-] rasz|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] arcticbull|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tinfoilhat666|6 years ago|reply
Is this a win or loss for Trump? (probably a win because he always wins)
[+] [-] OldSchoolJohnny|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zelon88|6 years ago|reply
Royalty doesn't cook their own meals. Their time is more valuable than that.
Likewise, America doesn't make it's own underwear. We have China to do that. Similarly, they have us to make safe airplanes and complex satellite equipment.
Closing trade to the extent that we're making our own underwear INSTEAD of satellite parts can't really be chocked up as a win. It just promotes the notion that China should build their own satellite parts and we should make our own underwear.
If making underwear isn't enough to feed a Chinese family, why would we with that destiny upon American families?
Tl;Dr, America makes complex, high quality machines and equipment. Refined oil products. Things that require quality over quantity. Things that you can't substitute a generic for. Those are our bread and butter exports. Cheap crap that gets thrown away, like Apple computers, are China's bread and butter. We can either accept these facts and balance markets accordingly (and stay on top at the same time) or we can compartmentalize the world and all be stuck spinning our wheels and duplicating lots of effort, cold-war style, but with stupid-crap like personal computers instead of nuclear weapons and spaceships.
[+] [-] danpalmer|6 years ago|reply
I closely with the fashion industry in the UK, and one of the things that surprised me a lot was finding out that "Made in the UK", at least for clothing, meant lower quality. While we used to have great manufacturing expertise, that has all been lost over the last 50+ years as manufacturing was shifted overseas.
Now not only is getting clothing manufactured elsewhere cheaper, it's also better quality, going against what consumers typically expect, because we lost the skills that we had.
I'd imagine that the US has similarly lost manufacturing skills as operations have been outsourced. Does US-based manufacturing (of computers in this case) actually result in higher quality products? Is there any evidence of this? Or is it all just PR and looking good for politicians?
[+] [-] magduf|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hogFeast|6 years ago|reply
What people don't realise is that in the North there are people working for 50p/£1 an hour making clothes for Primark et al (some of this isn't even branded as "Made in the UK").
So the reason quality is lower is because no-one will pay for quality anymore. These jobs go overseas or they done here under illegal/slave labour conditions (the UK is a bit like the U.S. in that there is basically no oversight of these breaches).
Also the "skills" required aren't that high. That is why the jobs went to China.
[+] [-] ChicagoBoy11|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] weberc2|6 years ago|reply
Reminds me of the IT Crowd episode with the fire extinguisher made in Great Britain. As an American, I didn't realize "made in the UK" had that reputation before watching that episode.
[+] [-] themagician|6 years ago|reply
What’s more is that “Made in USA” doesn’t even really tell you much about where something is actually made. It’s more an indicator of where something is assembled. So many things that say “Made in USA” are made from 100% Chinese components and just assembled or “finished” in the US. The standard is so loosely enforced by the FTC that it’s almost meaningless. And while the language of the law about country of origin seems explicit (“all or virtually all”), it’s anything but. Even flagrant violations can often act with impunity for decades, only to be tied up in court for years more if the FTC takes action. Most companies don’t even exist long enough to get caught when they are outright lying.
Globalism happened and there is no going back. Country of origin is pretty meaningless.
[+] [-] mdorazio|6 years ago|reply
In summary, it's not that producing on-shore inherently reduces quality or that there's no domestic expertise left, it's that to maintain the same end product quality you often have to significantly increase your price point, and mass-market customers usually don't like that.
[+] [-] ksec|6 years ago|reply
Again it depends. There are lots of thing Made in UK that are extremely good but just not very well known. The Brits, may be due to their tradition and culture are just not very good at marketing. Sunpel [1] 99% made in UK and still one of the best quality clothing I have ever had. ( I think their had their first product using Spanish Cotton only in the past few years, and their explanation was it had nothing to do with Cost, it was Simply the best they could find. )
And of coz there are lots of Suit and High End Bespoke items in London, that aren't really known in general public.
[1] https://www.sunspel.com/row/
[+] [-] jonknee|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Diesel555|6 years ago|reply
I recommend reading Crouching Tiger about US China relationships. Manufacturing and sustainability is very important to war fighting capability past day X (where X is when our current inventory is attrited). So this is something those seeking our security will want regardless.
The last thing to mention is about comparisons with countries which do not have the same labor laws / pollution laws. Yes, given the same assumptions they will make stuff cheaper. They don't have the same regulations. This is one reason why tariffs to help offset this imbalance (minus shipping across a gigantic ocean) are necessary - regardless of political views. Either the US has the same regulations as the competitor or they offset the difference somehow (I get it that our current tariffs are much more than that, I'm simply mentioning tariffs in general).
[+] [-] derekp7|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pergadad|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sschueller|6 years ago|reply
So, no change.
[+] [-] cmiles74|6 years ago|reply
"Apple made the previous Mac Pro in Austin, Texas, beginning in 2013. But with the new Mac Pro unveiled this month being made in China, Apple is "shifting abroad production of what had been its only major device assembled in the US as trade tensions escalate between the Trump administration and Beijing," The Wall Street Journal reported today."
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/apple...
That said, this all feels somewhat self-inflicted. One wonders if the tariffs on imports from China hadn't been put in place, perhaps Apple wouldn't have wanted to move production of this model out of the US.
[+] [-] zosterops|6 years ago|reply
> The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro.
[+] [-] miles|6 years ago|reply
"When you look at how much the components inside the base Mac Pro actually cost, you'll be shocked at Apple's profit margin. But when you understand why Apple is charging you so much cash, you'll just be angry." [0]
"The top-end Mac Pro could cost $45,000" [1]
[0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/deconstructing-the-base-mac-pr...
[1] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-top-end-mac-pro-could-cos...
[+] [-] asdfman123|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shivetya|6 years ago|reply
I figured the new Mac Pro was priced as such along with that monitor and stand as to spit in the faces of the fans that had been badgering Apple for years over the debacle that the Mac Pro had become. As in, Apple said fine, but you aren't the customer we want and you cannot afford it. Then again I am not even sure Apple wants any of that market, the machine by looks and its monitor seemed tailored made for influencers. that monitor stand was just a shark jumping moment if ever.
Seriously though, while the modular portion is an interesting take it is a convoluted method to deliver the upgrade path people wanted but worse it traps people to Apple which of course benefits Apple.
FWIW, custom configurations of iMacs are US assembled too. For the EU I think that work is done in Ireland.
[+] [-] tambourine_man|6 years ago|reply
But yeah, it's crazy expensive.
[+] [-] Analemma_|6 years ago|reply
Base price doesn't really matter to the buyers of these machines anyway, they're not consumer products. These are being used by professionals who generate revenue way in excess of what the computer costs, and stuff like enterprise support contracts (where you can have a replacement machine at your desk ASAP if yours dies, because otherwise you're losing money by the second) matters much more to them.
The articles you linked are just dumb clickbait using the logic of consumer product pricing where it isn't applicable.
[+] [-] nkg|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] josefresco|6 years ago|reply
Uhhh
[+] [-] aloknnikhil|6 years ago|reply
Yes, the Mac Pro has been manufactured since 2013 in Texas. However, this PR is more indicative of a strong trend and that's a good thing.
[+] [-] malchow|6 years ago|reply
On a personal note, I was not going to buy one, but now I’ll buy two.
[+] [-] minimaxir|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PeterStuer|6 years ago|reply
The Mac Pro, a low volume flagship product, was long the only US manufactured product, until Apple announced it was moving offshore a well.
Apple gets tariff exemptions on the import of the parts for the machines, so it can do the assembly in Austin.
Meanwhile Apple is shifting a very significant volume of manufacturing away from China to ... India.
Both Apple and the Administration get to send out 'feel good' PR.
[+] [-] nottorp|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eljimmy|6 years ago|reply
Doesn't seem very newsworthy.
[+] [-] elif|6 years ago|reply
This headline is equivalent to "Toyota manufacturing floor mats in the US" only it is made to sound sexy because it is apple and people mentally conflate Mac Pro with MacBook Pro.
[+] [-] rrggrr|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bigwavedave|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] diebir|6 years ago|reply
From my experience, don't buy made in the US. It is too expensive and the quality is bad. I think the pay structure in this country is such that nobody is paid "enough" to do quality work.
[+] [-] ryanmarsh|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] computerex|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darkstar999|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m0zg|6 years ago|reply
As to Mac Pro, even if it's mostly assembled by robots, at that price level it better be assembled by red blooded, gun totin', tobacco chewin' Texan robots. There's just no excuse to do otherwise when your computer costs like a midsize car.
[+] [-] resters|6 years ago|reply
We can't expect firms to excel in their core competencies when they are hamstrung by politicians that are trying to reduce economic freedom worldwide.
Apple Computer exists because of economic freedom, not in spite of it.
[+] [-] VikingCoder|6 years ago|reply
It's odd to me to describe that as "over $1 billion".
Either it's 2B, or the other part of that math isn't correct.
"To date, Apple has invested over $1 billion in American companies from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund — deploying the entire $1 billion initial investment and 20 percent of the $5 billion it subsequently committed to spend."