32 ms·
Apple’s New Mac Pro to Be Made in Texas
- mehhh 7y agoWow, Apple really likes to stick to the areas they know (Cupertino & Austin).
- dymk 7y agoThey all do. Major engineering presence sticks to tech hubs (which I realize is tautological)
- mehhh 7y agoGoogle and Amazon have both branched out much more than Apple, though Apple is trying to open a Seattle office. I'm just surprised they would choose Austin for manufacturing, as it means they have long supply lines and have to build an industry that doesn't currently exist in Austin.
- empalms 7y agoMac Pros have been coming out of Austin since 2013; the article details as much. Furthermore, Austin's been a major center for the US semi-conductor industry for quite some time. Here are just a few orgs that have an Austin presence: - Dell (HQ in Round Rock) - Apple - Nvidia - Qualcomm - Intel - Samsung - AMD - Silicon Labs - Cirrus Logic
- pickle-wizard 7y agoThe MacPro is built by Flextronics and they have had a factory in Austin for a while. Not sure when they opened it, but I used to work at a building in the same complex. It was there when I was at that job in 2011.
- bengotow 7y agoThis line caught my attention: "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 7y ago> 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. [1] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/09/20/2019-20442/notice-of-product-exclusions-amendment-to-the-exclusion-process-and-technical-amendments-chinas-acts https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/09/20/2019-20...
- baybal2 7y agoThanks for pulling that link out. Just look at that exemption list. Product category description lists look to me almost exactly like rigged state tenders would look like in some post-Soviet country > LED lighting fixtures, a kind of used in horticulture, containing over 5,000 LEDs spread across 6 light bars > Grills composed of steel wire, each measuring 49cm by 47cm, weighting 0.36kg > Power supplies ... measuring 148cm in length, 43cm in width Those items are pretty much purpose written for individual benefactors
- cl0ckt0wer 7y agoWow, I had to look this up. Great band name! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabazite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabazite
- rrggrr 7y agohttps://www.engadget.com/2019/09/21/apple-mac-pro-us-tariff-exemptions https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/21/apple-mac-pro-us-tariff-...
- eljimmy 7y ago> will begin production soon at the same Austin facility where Mac Pro has been made since 2013. Doesn't seem very newsworthy.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- richardknop 7y agoThey were supposed to move it to China and shut down the facility in Texas. But they reversed after I assume tariff threat from White House? Not sure but that's what I'd imagine.
- darkstar999 7y ago...where it has been manufactured since 2013.
- sschueller 7y ago"The latest generation Mac Pro will be manufactured in the same facility in Austin, Texas where Mac Pro has been made since 2013." So, no change.
- cmiles74 7y agoI 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." https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/apple-moves-mac-pro-production-from-texas-to-china/ 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.
- jonknee 7y agoI mean it has to have been all but closed for years right? The only thing they ever made was a giant flop that never got a meaningful update. What could they possibly have been making for the last several years?
- ryanmarsh 7y agoToyota 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?
- bt848 7y agoToyota doesn't even bother trying to market the Tundra outside the Americas, since cowboy cosplay isn't terribly popular abroad, so it makes sense that they are made here.
- weberc2 7y agoI doubt "cowboy cosplay" is a primary driver of pickup sales in the US so much as utility and affordability (the US has wider roads and cheaper fuel than Europe).
- duskwuff 7y agoI think it's wrong to discount the strong cultural element to the ownership of pickup trucks in the US. Listen to a bit of country music and count the name-drops of pickup truck models, or drive down the road and count the lifted pickups -- there's more than just "utility and affordability" going on here.
- weberc2 7y agoFair point.
- cat199 7y agosoo.. you're saying payola and product placement? seriously though, payola aside, there's some truth here.
- ssully 7y agoA family member is starting the search for a new vehicle and is expressing interest in pick ups. It was surprising at first to me since he hasn't owned a truck in 20+ years, but then I was over while he had his country music on (he started listening to it almost exclusively the last few years) and I noticed how much they talk about trucks and it kind of clicked for me.
- minimaxir 7y agoTo 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).
- heeebeeejeebees 7y agothis headline is absurd, so many people will immediately jump to the conclusion that this is related to China and tariffs, but no, it's been built there for 6 years.
- aloknnikhil 7y ago> The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro. 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.
- funkyy 7y agoDo you have source?
- aloknnikhil 7y agoIt's in the PR linked here.
- brenden2 7y agoManufacturing jobs in the US has been on a long, steady decline[1]. My pet theory is that 1) people don't want these jobs and 2) people elsewhere (like China) are more willing to take manufacturing jobs because it provides a greater life quality boost there than it does here. What value does it bring for the government to subsidize these industries? Other than helping someone's chances in election cycles, I don't see the point. I think the only reasonable way to stay relevant long term is for the US to forget about manufacturing and focus on intellectual endeavors. Focus on creating new technologies, exploring space, giving people greater mobility and less red tape. Just my 2 cents. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_St...
- bt848 7y agoWhich part of that wikipedia article strikes you as characteristic of a "long, steady decline"?
- brenden2 7y agoWhat I meant was manufacturing jobs, not actual manufacturing output. Just didn't phrase it correctly. The government typically provides incentives under the condition of creating jobs, but they're trying to create jobs people don't want.
- bt848 7y agoThat's true, also government programs to create jobs are pretty misguided in an environment with all-time-low unemployment. We should be trying to create employees.
- rusk 7y agoIt’s a form of wealth distribution that’s morally more palatable than putting all these guys on welfare, though perhaps not as cost effective
- Consultant32452 7y ago
- danpalmer 7y agoI'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?
- jonknee 7y agoI think snapping together a tower can be done equally well anywhere in the world.
- derekp7 7y agoHow much of computer manufacturing happens by hand, vs. loading the component reels on the pick and place machine and hitting the run button?
- chrisan 7y agoWell the new lovingly crafted Apple Mac Artisan coming in 2020 will be completely hand made
- magduf 7y agoThat depends on what part of the manufacturing stage you're talking about. Will the MBP in TX have its printed circuit boards made there? Or will this just be a final-assembly plant, where they ship in the completed components and have some laborers screw them together so that they can claim "assembled in USA!!!"? The final assembly is likely mostly by hand, maybe using some fixtures to speed things up. PC board assembly, however, is usually automated except perhaps for larger connectors which may be hand-placed before reflow soldering. Those machines, however, cost an absolute fortune (the ones capable of the very high volume needed for consumer electronics), and are usually made in Japan or Germany, and then shipped to China or Taiwan where they're used by contract manufacturers. I would honestly be surprised if Apple actually made the MBP PCBs themselves instead of just outsourcing it to a CM like FlexTronics.
- miles 7y agoBased 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 top-end Mac Pro could cost $45,000" [1] [0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/deconstructing-the-base-mac-pro-why-is-it-so-expensive/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/deconstructing-the-base-mac-pr... [1] https://www.techradar.com/news/the-top-end-mac-pro-could-cost-dollar45000 https://www.techradar.com/news/the-top-end-mac-pro-could-cos...
- Analemma_ 7y agoOut 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.
- overcast 7y agoI feel like most businesses at that level of need have long moved away from the MacPro, or they are out of business. For the rest of us mortals wanting a tower mac, the price of entry is too prohibitive. Base for my 2008 MacPro was in the ball park of $2900, and it was a beast. What is the base now, $6000? It's basically hackintosh from here on out, which works amazingly well now.
- _ph_ 7y agoYes, I actually had planned to buy a new Mac Pro if it had been similar in price to your 2008 Mac Pro. I am currently using a 27 inch iMac and am looking for a desktop machine with a decent GPU and decent internal storage. So at 3k for a Mac Pro plus some money for upgrades, I could have grudgingly justified. At 6k it is just way too expensive.
- malchow 7y agoThey 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.
- jholloway7 7y ago> a ton of consumers So like 12 average adults? /s
- magduf 7y ago>when one country is run like a trillion-dollar mafia. Which country are you talking about, China or the US?
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoI think this will make sense to a ton of consumers around the world. I can’t imagine it will make any difference to anybody outside the US, it may even be seen as a negative in some regions.
- johnchristopher 7y agoWait a freaking minute... I thought these jobs weren't coming back. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-an... and https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/17/technology/apple-china-jobs/ https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/17/technology/apple-china-jobs...
- melling 7y ago“Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products. Nothing has changed. The article is still correct.
- brandon272 7y agoThe authors of the articles likely weren't anticipating the U.S. to start a trade war with China and implement protectionist measures that involve waiving tariffs to specifically incentivize Apple to maintain manufacturing in the USA: "The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components." What I wonder is whether or not this is sustainable moving forward or only intended to be a temporary "win" to create headlines. And can any company that wants to manufacture in the U.S. avail themselves of "federal product exclusions"?
- endorphone 7y agoThe Mac Pro was already being made in the US. This is essentially a retention of the status quo. However of course anything is possible. The government can squeeze every company until all manufacturing is back in the US (though it's still a smaller segment than it was when the housing crisis hit). That would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater, though, as the US completely loses sight of the dynamics that made it the richest country in the world.
- computerex 7y agoAt first I thought the headline said that Macbook Pro will be assembled in the U.S and got super excited.
- mychael 7y agoNarrative violation! Good things aren't supposed to happen under this administration. /s
- TimTheTinker 7y ago> Narrative violation! That's an interesting term. I hadn't heard it before. All worldviews rely on a narrative of sorts. "Things were bad, X came along and provided a new way. But Y and Z are still problems. Here's where it's all destined to go. You can join and be a part of that."
- knowaveragejoe 7y agoDid you even read the article? Mac Pros have been built here since 2013. The only reason they aren't moving production overseas is because the administration exempted them from some tariffs. I am constantly baffled by people who support the Trump administration and simultaneously claim to want less government interference in the economy.
- mychael 7y agoIn case you didn't realize, this is a new post published today. Theres actually news here otherwise Apple wouldn't have published a press release.
- wavefunction 7y ago>Theres actually news here otherwise Apple wouldn't have published a press release I am not sure about that.
- akhilcacharya 7y ago> I am constantly baffled by people who support the Trump administration and simultaneously claim to want less government interference in the economy. Less government for thee, more government (and government selecting winners and losers) for me. The farm bailouts as a result of the trade war are already in the billions.
- Apofis 7y agoThey're finally doing something with all that cash they have on hand. Good. Congrats Texas.
- dxxvi 7y agoJust checked on bestbuy.com, the Lenovo X1 Carbon 14" 1080p 8GB RAM 256GB SSD laptop is $1580 where the Dell XPS 13.3" 4k 16GB RAM 256GB SSD is $1500. Doesn't Dell make the xps 13 in China?
- EugeneOZ 7y agoDell makes them in China (received one of XPS today for my son). Difference between 4k and 1080p can cost you about approx. 600-1000 USD (from my experience of reviewing this market extensively few weeks ago). RAM difference - about $100.
- readhn 7y agoI can see already a lot of people with money who are on the fence (PC vs MAC) will buy Macbook pro just because it is MADE IN USA. Should boost product sales for Apple!
- ezzzzz 7y agoThis announcement is for the new Mac Pro, not Macbook pro. In addition to the waver Apple received to manufacture this with imported parts, I'm sure the vertical targeted by the Mac Pro (see $45k top spec) and the relatively low demand makes this viable.
- readhn 7y agogotcha. thanks for clarification!
- maherali 7y agoUSA USA USA.
- aritmo 7y ago*assembled
- PeterStuer 7y agoApple'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.
- noahwitt 7y agoThis is good for security especially in light of the super micro incident with China.
- the-dude 7y agoWhich incident? The Bloomberg incident?
- nottorp 7y agoI'm sure everyone outside the US is now thinking "why couldn't they make it in China and sell it for 20% less?" :)
- dguaraglia 7y agoAll 50 of them.
- diebir 7y agoI 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.
- rockinghigh 7y agoWhat brand was it?
- diebir 7y agoFord
- dbg31415 7y agoWhy Austin? Why not North Dakota, or West Virginia or some place that is hurting for jobs.
- cat199 7y agoProbably A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States#State_income_tax_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_St... Along with some B of: a) right to work state b) central proximity w/r/t roadways c) long standing historical relations to UT/semiconductor industry/IBM/Motorola/Power (as noted elswhere in thread: this isn't a new factory but a continued one)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- espeed 7y agoIt's not just Apple, and it's not just Austin. Tech is moving to Texas en masse. There's several reasons why, and this is just the beginning... ~> Amazon just announced it's now adding 1400 tech jobs in Austin (600 more in addition to the 800 it announced already). ~> Ericsson is adding 400 tech jobs and is opening its first 5G factor in Dallas. ~> Google is building a 375-acre data center campus in Midlothian, Texas ("one of the largest such projects in the country"). [1] "Amazon expanding Austin presence with 600 new tech jobs" https://www.statesman.com/news/20190919/amazon-expanding-austin-presence-with-600-new-tech-jobs https://www.statesman.com/news/20190919/amazon-expanding-aus... [2] "Ericsson picks North Texas for its first 5G smart factory in the U.S." https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2019/09/19/ericsson-picks-north-texas-for-its-first-5g-smart-factory-in-the-u-s/ https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2019/09/19/ericsson-pick... [3] "Google's massive $600M data center takes shape in Ellis County as tech giant ups Texas presence" https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2019/06/14/google-s-massive-600m-data-center-takes-shape-in-ellis-county-as-tech-giant-ups-texas-presence/ https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2019/06/14/g...
- selimthegrim 7y ago
- plg 7y agoserious question: who is going to buy this machine (and the very expensive monitor)? My best guess is that it's aimed squarely at video producers? Is there another market?
- vemv 7y agoHackers from a variety of languages could be attracted by the high core count, which allows one to test parallel programming easily and reap its benefits first-hand. I myself code in Clojure, have trivially parallelized some productivity tooling.
- hu3 7y agoNot me. I'll build a more powerful machine that is also easily upgradable and future-proof. For a fraction of the price.
- leeoniya 7y agoi wonder why Texas? making semiconductors tends to produce a lot of toxic waste. and Texas is pretty lax on these issues, especially under the current administration. https://www.texastribune.org/2017/10/13/what-does-trumps-repeal-environmental-regulations-mean-texas/ https://www.texastribune.org/2017/10/13/what-does-trumps-rep...
- wmf 7y agoWe're talking about assembly of the Mac Pro not semiconductors. Presumably Apple chose Texas back in 2013 because they gave the biggest tax break, just like every other company.
- pickle-wizard 7y agoThough there are fabs in Texas. The 2 that I know of for sure are Samsung is Austin about 5 miles down the road from the Flextronics plant that builds the MacPro. National Semiconductor has a fab up in Arlington Texas. I'm not sure if Texas Instruments still has their fabs open or not, but they had several at one point too. Sure there are more that I don't know about.
- llampx 7y agoAren't all Apple A series CPUs made by TSMC in Taiwan?
- seltzered_ 7y agoIf you're referring to the 'Samsung Austin Semiconductor' in Tech Ridge, I wonder how well the fab is aging. The last building I remember was built primarily for NAND flash production back around 2007 ( https://phys.org/news/2007-06-samsung-largest-wafer-austin-texas.html https://phys.org/news/2007-06-samsung-largest-wafer-austin-t... ). Though chipdesign and not fab, also worth remembering Apple acquired Austin-based Intrinsity in 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsity)
- 7y ago
- flaka 7y agoAs a european, i wont be buying this product as long as it’s not built in Europe. If the us is pushing hard for buying made in usa, europeans have the right to buy made in europe only.
- radmarshallb 7y agowhich electronics will you buy?
- flaka 7y ago!= made in the us of a
- lExUaLAN 7y agoAs a not American, I cannot understand why should I subsidize rednecks by paying extra for something that could be done much cheaper in China.
- williesleg 7y agoThanks Don!
- alexnewman 7y agoI have completely given up on apple. I think the products are horrible. However, I will purchase any computers which I can assembled in berry compliant countries. Double points for the USA, apple just earned 10k from me.
- alexnewman 7y agoI assume this was downvoted for being pro usa
- souprock 7y ago"computers which I can assembled in berry compliant countries" ??? So "can" must be an adverb, which isn't something I've seen before. To "can assemble" something could be that you assemble it while it is in a can, kind of like building a ship in a bottle. Alternately, it could be that you used a can to do the assembling, similar to "screwdriver assembled" but you used a can. Hmmm. To be "berry compliant" means following the rules of the berry. I'll guess this relates to Berry Bitty City, where Strawberry Shortcake and her friends live. You have to follow the rules, as we learn in the episode "Too Cool for Rules". It could have been clearer.
- alexnewman 7y agoMight wanna google berry compliance. The fact people don't know about it is even more frightful. https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpic/ic/berry_amendment_faq.html https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpic/ic/berry_amendment_faq.htm... I was a vegetarian for 10 years and a vegan for 3. Now I realize that not buying slave labor is more important than not eating animals.
- gregf 7y agoPlease come with a button that makes a gun pop out!
- VikingCoder 7y ago1B + 0.2 * 5B = 2B 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."
- bagacrap 7y agoThe 20% is committed, so only partially spent so far, iiuc
- VikingCoder 7y agoThanks for the reply... But that's really not a plain English reading of their statement: "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." "Apple has deployed the entire $1B and 20% of $5B." Is there a part of the sentence I'm missing which implies your reading is correct? Rephrasing: I suspect you're right about reality, and the sentence I quoted was written by someone who didn't understand the reality, or was trying to misrepresent reality.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- peter303 7y agoEven though I dont care for Mr Trump, I do like that Tim Cook and Trump meet now and then to discuss various matters. I suspect Tim has educated Trump on the complexity of global supply chains. And Trumps opinions may influence Apples decisions a bit too. Trump also has talks with GMs CEO Mary Barra.
- golemiprague 7y agoSo everybody were criticising Trump and demonising Bannon but it seems like their policies regarding bringing manufacturing back to the US are starting to have some impact. Whether it is because of Tariffs or just the general attitude to the subject, whether it is because the "lefty" elite which is in practice very capitalist realised that there are many blue collar people who are really pissed off and didn't vote for their preferred candidate, it doesn't matter. The result is that we are starting to see a positive change.
- bigwavedave 7y agoI just want them to get rid of the smart bar and bring back my physical keys, I couldn't care less about anything else.
- oneplane 7y agoWhy would I as a buyer care what state or country the thing is built in? Seems to me that is makes no difference as in both cases it is thousands of kilometers away from me.
- hamzaahemad 7y agoGreat
- plazmatic 7y agoTexas slaves return then I suppose? Enjoy work on the Apple product line, Texans...
- aphextron 7y ago*Assembled
- notadoc 7y agoIt's hard to imagine Apple selling many of these at their ultra high price points, but perhaps it's only by selling a $10,000 Mac that Apple can make them in the USA and maintain their desired margins?
- resters 7y agoThis is good news only to those who devalue economic freedom. Thanks to the tariffs (taxes) imposed by the administration, Apple has had to pay millions of dollars in legal fees and undertake a buildout in Texas that is very likely not the best business decision. In a few years, when the consequences of the suboptimal business decision have occurred, nobody will remember that it was political games and meddling that led to the wasting of (what will by that time) likely amount to billions of dollars in added costs. In my view, if we think Donald Trump is so good at making computers and phones, we ought (as individuals) invest in his competitor to Apple and await its success. If not, then we ought to keep him as far away from the business decision making of private sector firms as possible. Already, government gets between $60 to $80 on every iPhone sold (sales tax). When is enough enough?
- resters 7y agoTo 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.
- elif 7y agoWhat 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.
- jasoneckert 7y agoWhile this may be something that allows Apple to receive exemptions from tariffs on other products (e.g. iPhone), it may not be the major reason. It just makes sense that they'd continue assembling the Mac Pro 2019 in the same facility as the Mac Pro 2013.
- sunkenvicar 7y agoThe new Mac Pro was ready to be made in China. Then the Commander in Chief ordered American companies to move. Thank you President Trump.
- favorited 7y ago> The new Mac Pro was ready to be made in China Citation needed. The previous Mac Pro was already being made in Texas, so Trump resulted in no change from the status quo.
- sunkenvicar 7y agohttps://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-moves-mac-pro-production-to-china-11561728769 https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-moves-mac-pro-production-... President Trump stopped these jobs from being shipped overseas to China.
- m0zg 7y agoGood. 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.
- StartupJFox 7y agoIt's ironic that Trump adopted Bernie Sanders' trade policy, which is opposed by 99% of professional economists, and HN can't praise it enough. Trade protectionism is the anti-vax movement of economic policy. It goes against all the science, all the research, and all the empirical studies.
- tamaharbor 7y agoI just hope it has a better keyboard.
- donatj 7y agoIs that why the stand is $1000?
- kmlx 7y ago> As part of its commitment to US economic growth This reads as a US government threat to a private company, followed by a compromise. 1. How much pressure did the US government put on Apple in order to for them to release such a propaganda piece? 2. And we're somehow pointing the finger at China? 3. Finally what does $AAPL have to do with macro indicators such as US economic growth?
- davidcollantes 7y agoWhen that happens, acquiring a Mac Pro will become ever more so difficult for many of us. As it is right now I can't afford it. I can only assume pricing will go up when production starts in the US.