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What I would rather know is where the entire supply chain is. What countries contribute what percentage of the finished product? You can claim "made in X" if

What I would rather know is where the entire supply chain is. What countries contribute what percentage of the finished product? You can claim "made in X" if the final assembly is there, even if 90% of the value add is in the supply chain not located in X.

TazeTSchnitzel 4y ago
Apple have the budget and the interest to investigate their supply chain and provide a good answer to this. Outside sources probably don't :/ My uninformed speculation would be that the answer is something like 90% China for each hop along the chain, but those accumulate. 0.9^n becomes small with large enough n, so depending on the viewpoint it might be majority non-China…
- mikymoothrowa 4y ago
  it’s no where close to 90% https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supplier-List.pdf https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supp...
  - verdenti 4y ago
- boole1854 4y ago
  > My uninformed speculation would be that the answer is something like 90% China for each hop along the chain, but those accumulate. 0.9^n becomes small with large enough n, so depending on the viewpoint it might be majority non-China… If the cost allocated to China is 90% at each 'hop along the chain', then the total going to China across all hops is 90%, not 0.9^n. (This isn't like probability theory -- adding more links in the chain doesn't decrease the costs of earlier links.) In any case, I have not found more recent estimates, but in 2018 one author estimated that only 3.5% of the manufacturing cost could be allocated to China. Their competitive advantage is in final assembly, but most of the pricey components are sourced elsewhere: https://theconversation.com/we-estimate-china-only-makes-8-46-from-an-iphone-and-thats-why-trumps-trade-war-is-futile-99258 https://theconversation.com/we-estimate-china-only-makes-8-4...

TazeTSchnitzel 4y ago

Apple have the budget and the interest to investigate their supply chain and provide a good answer to this. Outside sources probably don't :/ My uninformed speculation would be that the answer is something like 90% China for each hop along the chain, but those accumulate. 0.9^n becomes small with large enough n, so depending on the viewpoint it might be majority non-China…

mikymoothrowa 4y ago
it’s no where close to 90% https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supplier-List.pdf https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supp...
- verdenti 4y ago
boole1854 4y ago
> My uninformed speculation would be that the answer is something like 90% China for each hop along the chain, but those accumulate. 0.9^n becomes small with large enough n, so depending on the viewpoint it might be majority non-China… If the cost allocated to China is 90% at each 'hop along the chain', then the total going to China across all hops is 90%, not 0.9^n. (This isn't like probability theory -- adding more links in the chain doesn't decrease the costs of earlier links.) In any case, I have not found more recent estimates, but in 2018 one author estimated that only 3.5% of the manufacturing cost could be allocated to China. Their competitive advantage is in final assembly, but most of the pricey components are sourced elsewhere: https://theconversation.com/we-estimate-china-only-makes-8-46-from-an-iphone-and-thats-why-trumps-trade-war-is-futile-99258 https://theconversation.com/we-estimate-china-only-makes-8-4...