[tesch1]

Results matter, it's not hard to imagine that Apple considers the real risk of its promise and market position of being the privacy option being undermined by their supply chain risks, and leverage being used against them by privacy unfriendly actors.

[themacguffinman]

What's the added risk here? It's fine to "risk" almost the entire iPhone itself to be manufactured in China but the servers for some random AI features need to be pure?

Sounds more like technical marketing and the company will treat any decisions around it as a marketing exercise.

[roughly]

Apple's commented previously on why they build in China, and it's beyond just the pricing - the supply chain for every single part they use is in China and mostly in the same geographic region, so there's a level of flexibility there they couldn't get in the US. It wouldn't surprise me if it was genuinely a goal for Apple to manufacture more in the US - they're a notoriously privacy-focused (corporate, not end-user) company, and China's known for IP wandering its way off campus. They're not going to sacrifice the iPhone economics until the US option is actually viable, but I'm not surprised they keep kicking the tires on US manufacturing.

[Reason077]

They've actually been diversifying iPhone manufacturing away from China for a few years already. As of April 2024, 14% of all iPhones were already manufactured in India. That's around 30 million phones per year. And Apple plans to double their India manufacturing again by 2028.

[JohnBooty]

So they shouldn't reduce risk anywhere, if they're currently unable to do it on the iPhone?

[jajko]

Results don't matter as much as PR, this is time when this is unfortunately valid. Just look at US elections.

Measurable results affect rational aspects of our minds, PR attempts to attacks directly emotions bypassing the former, ie to induce impulsive shopping.

Also, what actual security? Apple is as vulnerable as cheap chinese phones against state actors using 0days. Apple devices are still being stolen for spare parts, Apple doesnt secure each component AFAIK and thieves know this (very recent case with friend of a friend, they even knew how to bypass that built in airtag tracking). I haven't seen anything but very well crafted PR statements on this topic. All money-accessing apps on absolutely any phone are a security risk.

But folks love convenience above all.