U.S. iPhone Pricing Detailed
Rewritten Article:
Trump's Push for "Made in USA" iPhones Could Make the Devices Unaffordable
That's right, folks! You heard it, the big man's on a roll - Donald Trump is gunning for iPhones to be made right here in the good old USA. But, hey, hold onto your wallets because it might not be so good for your bank account.
Trump ain't too happy with Apple CEO, Tim Cook, these days, saying he's got a bone to pick with him. You see, Tim Cook ain't planning on making a massive portion of the iPhones in India like Trump wants, but instead in the USA. A new iPhone whipped up in good ol' West Virginia or New Jersey would cost a pretty penny - several times more than the current price tag.
Now, economists are shouting that this idea to up the production in the States could potentially spell trouble for the company. Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush estimated on CNN that an iPhone 100% American-made would set you back around $3500. Yeah, you read that right – three-five grand for an iPhone!
Apple's built up one heck of a complex supply chain over the years, and shifting even just 10% of it from Asia to the USA? That's a staggering $30 billion and three long years, according to Ives' calculations.
Thousands Upon Thousands of Workers Needed
It ain't just the price tag that's a problem with Trump's idea, though. Logistically, it'd be a nightmare. You see, there just ain't millions of factory workers in the USA anymore. We've transformed into a service-oriented society, and the folks who might be suitable for production work? Low-wage migrant workers, but alas, they're getting deported left and right by the US government.
In China, over 200,000 people worked in the largest iPhone factory alone in the city of Zhengzhou, run by supplier Foxconn. Millions more are employed in the Apple supply chain there, according to a former Apple engineer who spoke to Bloomberg.
Ramping Up Production in India
Guess what? Apple ain't focusing on the USA as their new hub for iPhone production. Instead, they're zeroing in on India. Cook recently declared that most iPhones sold in the US this quarter are expected to come from India.
Remember when Apple started hunting for alternative production sites a couple of years back due to geopolitical tensions and the threat of a trade war and Chinese invasion in Taiwan? Yep, that's when India came into play. Apple's been increasing production capacity at contract manufacturers in India and Vietnam, and today, the whole model range can be assembled in India. But, hey, most iPhones are still being made in China.
A "Fictional Story"
So, even if they managed to get enough people to make iPhones stateside, they'd still need to train them to do so. Apple supply chain expert Fraser Johnson from Canada said, "The US economy is not set up to assemble mobile phones. They don't have the facilities or the flexible workforce - training 200,000 to 300,000 people to assemble iPhones is simply not practical."
If the US government's considering robots instead of humans, that still wouldn't work quite yet. Supply chain experts and people familiar with Apple's production process told Bloomberg that robots aren't quite there yet, due to the constantly evolving composition of iPhones.
Analyst Ives sums up the idea of production in the USA like this: "It's a fictional story."
Sources:
- Apple's Complex Supply Chain (Bloomberg)
- Ramping Up iPhone Production in India (Wall Street Journal)
- Analyst Dan Ives' Estimates on CNN
- The Reality of iPhone Production in the US (The Guardian)
- The community policy proposed by Trump involves the manufacture of iPhones within the United States, a move that could potentially increase the devices' prices, according to economists.
- The manufacturing of iPhones in the USA, as suggested by Trump, could lead to costs soaring to around $3500, as estimated by analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush.
- The finance industry and industry analysts suggest that the shift of iPhone manufacturing from Asia to the USA could cost a staggering $30 billion and take three years.
- The employment policy of relocating iPhone manufacturing from China to the USA faces logistical challenges due to a lack of factory workers in the US, with millions employed in the Apple supply chain in China.
- The push for increasing iPhone production in India, rather than the USA, is a strategic move by Apple, as most iPhones sold in the US this quarter are expected to come from India.
