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Nexus Q Stretches "Made in USA" Label
sl4shd0rk writes "Among the much ballyhooed tech at Google I/O last week was the Google Nexus Q. Google made an effort to proudly point out the device was "Made in the USA" and even had it stamped on the back of it. A tear-down at ifixit.com however, reveals the guts of the thing are mostly manufactured overseas at the expected locations (China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, et al). Wired also posted a tear-down in which they reveal a die-casting shop in Wisconsin is the source of the zinc housing, but certainly not the entire device as some news sources reported. It's great that Google decided to utilize the struggling U.S. manufacturing sector for this, but claiming the device is USA made, and being blatantly vague about its origins is quite misleading." How struggling the U.S. manufacturing sector is depends on who you ask and how you measure, remember.
Slashdot should really consider hiring an editor.
The housing and assembly is done in the US.
The article is from someone who will go to pedantic lengths to justify their hate.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Would be more appropriate for most items that claim to be made here.
Perhaps if you have a % of US sourced parts to go along with being assembled here, but until then its not really made here by any stretch of the imagination.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If was assembled in the USA it's considered Made In America. More than 90% of the products you buy are put together from parts sourced from elsewhere.
Since the USA does not have the technological capability to create the level of sophisticated electronics in these devices, who would ever think the contents were "made in the USA"? It is not possible.
Designed by Google in California
Assembled in the USA
Perhaps they have never disassembled an "american car" with all the parts stamped "made in Canda" or "made in mexico".
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Well, what do you expect from an overgrown ad agency that makes money by selling your privacy?
Well, what do you expect? The USA has outsourced just about all of its high-tech manufacturing overseas. There are a lot of parts that Google probably can't even get domestically. I think the point is that they're making more of the thing in the USA than most electronic gizmos. If they're successful and there's a lot of demand for the Nexus Q, and more importantly, if other companies follow suit and the demand for electronics supply to be close-at-hand increases, then you'll see a ripple effect for more things like chips being manufactured in the USA.
Love it when /. editors add links to paywalled articles...
Serious question. On some stories (there are certain patterns but I won't bore you), I notice a lot of the kinds of comments I am replying to right now. These comments have blatant racist/vulgar/nsfw word-spewings and are almost always from AC's. Is this some kind of coordinated effort to keep people at work or anywhere else there may be filters for this kind of stuff from reading this content? I notice it a lot on anything that praises open source or even tangentially like this Android running device. Just curious about people's thoughts.
Making stickers in the USA, that have "Made in the USA" printed on them....
Many of the parts listed in the article had multiple possible source countries, and several of them listed US plants as potential sources. Conceivably Google could have requested those plants be used as much as possible.
Even if that's not the case, we're talking chips here. The housing was made in the USA, several of the chips were as well. It's reasonable to assume that the boards were made in a US plant, that the work of mounting chips to boards, of attaching connectors, of assembling the units, of doing QA, etc. etc. was done in a factory in the USA.
Most of the human labor (in other words the actual jobs) was performed in the USA. The foreign-sourced components are small enough that there was likely a lot more robot labor than human labor involved.
I'd say what you're really paying for in buying that Made in the USA label is employment for Americans, and you're getting it.
Even if it is a bit fuzzy, the FTC regulates the use of express claims like "Made in the USA" See this webpage for details:
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus03-complying-made-usa-standard
In short, not every part of the device needs to be from the US for the device to be "Made in the USA". Here is a relevent exerpt for people who are interested, but not THAT interested:
-------------------
What factors does the Commission consider to determine whether a product is "all or virtually all" made in the U.S.?
The product’s final assembly or processing must take place in the U.S. The Commission then considers other factors, including how much of the product’s total manufacturing costs can be assigned to U.S. parts and processing, and how far removed any foreign content is from the finished product. In some instances, only a small portion of the total manufacturing costs are attributable to foreign processing, but that processing represents a significant amount of the product’s overall processing. The same could be true for some foreign parts. In these cases, the foreign content (processing or parts) is more than negligible, and, as a result, unqualified claims are inappropriate.
Example: A company produces propane barbecue grills at a plant in Nevada. The product’s major components include the gas valve, burner and aluminum housing, each of which is made in the U.S. The grill’s knobs and tubing are imported from Mexico. An unqualified Made in USA claim is not likely to be deceptive because the knobs and tubing make up a negligible portion of the product’s total manufacturing costs and are insignificant parts of the final product.
Example: A table lamp is assembled in the U.S. from American-made brass, an American-made Tiffany-style lampshade, and an imported base. The base accounts for a small percent of the total cost of making the lamp. An unqualified Made in USA claim is deceptive for two reasons: The base is not far enough removed in the manufacturing process from the finished product to be of little consequence and it is a significant part of the final product.
Lets start refering to The War Against Terror by it's initials. . .
Dear sl4shd0rk,
Never ever say the phrase "much ballyhooed" again.
You have no idea how retarded it sounds. You probably don't realize it, but every time you say it, at least 12-15 people around you wish they could watch you die a slow, painful death.
Sincerely,
Concerned Humans Everywhere
I can understand why people dislike misleading marketing but why is it a positive thing if something is made in the USA? Humans are humans everywhere and companies are not more evil if they employ 100 people in Korea than if they employ 100 people in the USA (especially when they can probably employ 200 people in Korea instead of 100 people in the USA) I guess you could make a point about it being wrong because of the financial support (tax credits, etc.) that companies receive for staying in the states but most of the time the bureaucrats/politicians who award them do know how many people the companies employ so I doubt there is that much cheating going on...
If companies dodge tax (make their profit in one country, taking advantage of all the infrastructure, etc. provided by that country but then pay 0% taxes to some remote island), that's unethical and obviously just gaming the system. But if companies just employ people who don't ask so high material rewards that the planet can't support it in the long term, I have hard time seeing what's wrong.
The teardown lists the chips and *potential* points of origin, a few which could not have been produced domestically. The proportion of chips that actually might have been sourced from US is actually pretty significant (more than I thought would have been possible). Of the components that might have been sourced from overseas or domestically, they have no idea how those parts were fulfilled (though at least for DIMMs, the SPD reveals the manufacturing plant if you understand the manufacturer specific location codes).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Maybe they OEM'd parts from Bosch.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Those labels are required by law, and what they require is that the country of final assembly is where things are labeled. Now you can argue if that is stupid or not, but that is how it is done, and has been for a long time (back when it was implemented it made more sense).
Almost all tech devices are a hodge podge of components from different places. Even a single component can have many places. Like say you get a 22nm Ivy Bridge Intel processor. Well it was fabricated in the USA, in Chandler Arizona. That's where Intel's 22nm fab is (though I understand they are bringing up 22nm at their fab in Israel soon here). However once it is fabbed, it is shipped off to another site for testing and packing. There is one in the US, but also one in Costa Rica, Singapore, and other places. So your processor may well be stamped "Costa Rica" even though the fabrication was done in the US.
Of course that then goes on a motherboard almost certainly made in China, they are pretty much the only place that makes them. However on that motherboard is components from all over. The capacitors are often from Japan, they are really big in that market. The southbridge chipset is probably from the US, other incidental chips often from Taiwan. The memory that goes on there then depends on the brand. A lot of it is made in Taiwan, some in Germany, some in the US, just depends on who you get it from it is a lot more world wide. The harddrive is probably from Malaysia, that is where most are made, though there are other places and of course the harddrive itself has a bunch of components from different places.
This just continues. We live in a global economy and most things are built of components from all over. In some cases, you discover that only one country really does a given thing. They've gotten good at it, so nobody else really competes.
The "made in" labels always specify the place of final assembly. If you want that changed, well you can work on that, but it is pretty entrenched and I doubt it is going anywhere. No way we are going to list every place. Otherwise you are going to have a device that says "Made of components from the US, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, France, and oh fuck it about 20 other nations."
Place holders for threadjacking when it gets crowded..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Serious question. On some stories (there are certain patterns but I won't bore you), I notice a lot of the kinds of comments I am replying to right now. These comments have blatant racist/vulgar/nsfw word-spewings and are almost always from AC's. Is this some kind of coordinated effort to keep people at work or anywhere else there may be filters for this kind of stuff from reading this content? I notice it a lot on anything that praises open source or even tangentially like this Android running device. Just curious about people's thoughts.
The problem is that Slashdot's "4Chan and Mutant Repellant" shield works as well as the rest of Slashcode. That is, it's pretty buggy. Sometimes it gets the job done, other times not so much.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
That is really the key element to me, and the most significant assembly work. The actual components actually need to come from the suppliers where-ever they may be.
If they are actually doing the circuit board building population in the USA, I think that warrants a made in USA kudos.
If they are putting the assembled circuit board in a case, that is just lame BS.
right here.
Some day this kind of labeling will be made illegal.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Imagine that, a company that makes a habit of being overly vague about how it gleans your personal data and what exactly it does with it also being vague as to the origins of another one of their products. Yeah I can use another search engine, but unfortunately they are a defacto standard. Everyone on Slasdot likes to beat up Microsoft for their corporate policies, but Google can't seem to do any wrong. OK, now it's time for the Gmail zombies to kick in and tell everyone how it's good to put more of your personal data on their servers since Google does no harm... never mind a company's private data. Google is just as slimy as any multi billion dollar company. Even if it does provide an essential service; like AT&T or Con Ed. So now why exactly should I want to give Google my cell phone number when I want to post a video of whatever on YouTube?
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I will wait until it is 100% made overseas until I purchase one.
Thanks.
There's already a patent on that...
In Canada there are rules that say you can label a product as "Product of Canada" provided that 50 percent of the cost of the product was spent in Canada. Thus fish caught and cleaned in another country and shipped to Canada, where they are packaged for store shelves, are labelled "Product of Canada" because the final packaging makes 50 percent of the total cost.
Made in Canada has different rules I believe.
What are the rules of the Made in USA label?
If you are living in the US then buying stuff MADE IN THE USA is buying stuff made by "your fellow citizens".
In fact i would bet that many folks here would pay a bit extra for something if they knew that it was "Made By Fred Rogers #586-23-6431D" and they could in fact Meet Mr Rogers"
so if you are living in %other country% you might prefer an item made in %other country% unless you knew that %other country% was absolute rubbish in making %item%
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Yes, I praise Google for doing at least some sourcing and assembling in the USA, but remember: they did this just for a very niche product that they know they won't sell many of for two reasons. First, it is at least 1.5 times the cost of similar multimedia devices. Secondly, it cannot stream ANY local media; an as-designed flaw mainly to help bump up Google Music usage.
This is another Google experiment they will kill sometime next year after the hype of embarrasing Apple for building just about everything in China dies down. Also: don't hold your breath for any Nexus phones or tablets to be built in the USA - not sure they actually could be anyways.
I heard that the 'Made in the USA' sticker was made in Mexico.
If they want appreciation they can start by paying their fair share of tax. Slapping some Chinese hardware into a US case does not make me think anything different of them.
LOL how idiotic. What public relations firm are you representing? Do you write code? Is google actively seeking to destroy your ability to write sucessful system code with the use of software-patents like Apple and Microsoft are doing? Even though the code you write is totally different from any code they have or have used in any products they produce? Is Google launching "Thermonuclear" lawsuits against their competitors? Is google running a software-patent extortion scheme in order to hobble open-source and free software ala Microsoft? Please elaborate on how google is exploiting information about me to the fullest extent?
Actually, the suit making the statement went to great lengths to play-down the "Made in the USA" point, going so far as to say that it would not be a significant part of their marketing strategy. Don't let things like facts get in the way of a good hate, though...
...do this. Parts are made outside the US with final assembly inside the US. Now they can claim "made in the USA." I'm looking at you, Harley.
If I can't thread-jack, I don't comment. Period.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
OMFG! Some of the ICs are only made in foreign countries! Some might be made in foreign countries, but are also made in the US! They only make most of the parts and assemble it in the US!
I read the tear down at Fix-it link, but it doesn't match the headline here. Neither does the CNN article linked claim that the entire device is made in the US.
"A tear-down at ifixit.com however, reveals the guts of the thing are mostly manufactured overseas at the expected locations (China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, et al)." Except, it doesn't. Nothing in the tear-down supports that claim.
This is just trolling for those that don't RTFAs, by a submitter who does not understand manufacturing and apparently didn't RTFAs either
That would be the technically accurate claim and for a number of hardware products that my employer manufactures.
In our example we assemble in the US, design in the US, program the firmware in the US, program the chips in the US but source a number of the raw parts from TAA compliant countries. I'm pretty sure the Nexus Q can claim pretty much the same manufacturing mix minus the TAA compliance, not that that matters for a consumer device.
That said I'm going to buy one... I don't care if it ends up being a paper weight, I'll support on-shoring wherever I get a chance.
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
At least it's manufactured in the country they claim. We sell products which are entirely manufactured (and tested) in India, we bring them over here, test them again and slap a 'Made in the U.K" sticker on them then we claim to the UK Chamber of Commerce (and Saudi customs) that they are of UK origin.
THAT is how you do dishonest country of origin claims.
AC as i'd rather not go to jail for helping to lie to the Chamber & HMRC
"It's not hand-made in USA, it's Hand-made in Usa. The Hand people are a vietnamese slave-tribe, and Usa is their island prison."
(very bad screencap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm3TepXcD8A)
(Jack Donnaghy)
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I read a story on the people who make Mag flashlights. They are very proud of "made in the USA" and wanted a 100% USA-manufactured product. Even for something as simple as a flashlight, turned out that one part could not be sourced from the USA, and gearing op manufacturing themselves would have been prohibitively expensive.
I'm not saying Google's in this exact boat, but it is hard to expect 100% made in the USA from any product of reasonable complexity if something as simple as a flashlight can't do it.
134.43 Methods of marking specific articles.
(1) Assembled in (country of final assembly);
(2) Assembled in (country of final assembly) from components of (name of country or countries of origin of all components); or
(3) Made in, or product of, (country of final assembly).
__
Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one
The ironic thing would be to produce the stickers in China and then export them in USA to be glued on American products.
The sticker would then read "Made in USA" with a smaller "Made in China" under it. That will surely cause another Slashdot article.
> notice it a lot on anything that praises open source or even tangentially like this Android running device
What? That's just your confirmation bias. For example, this story is actually super critical of the Nexus Q.
So according to your own logic, maybe it's the pro-open source crowd doing this to bury articles like this? :)
Slashdot has been like that for years. It's why moderation was first created. Some people just get their lulz by posting garbage and waiting for it to be modded down. Who knows why.
Kinda like the old box printed in USA for all the Walmart dumb dumbs
Lets get this over with... Fuck Off
We have a factory in Wisconsin which makes containers for EGGs and are labeled made in the USA etc. The eggs which are placed into our containers are from CHINA chicken factories and shipped all that way to the middle of the USA so we can repackage them and mislead people to think they were laid in horrible US corporate egg "farms" instead of the even worse unregulated chinese "farms".
I'm told more than half the eggs in the USA are not from the USA and our eggs are probably not considered among them by anybody counting end products.
I wonder just how chinese eggs are so cheap that it makes sense to fly them here.
Summer.
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus03-complying-made-usa-standard
It should state like many other products:
Assembled in the US from foreign and domestics parts
I'm actually an android fan, but I don't get this device. What I have against it is I read that previously the nexus 7 was to have hdmi out, but why have that when you can buy a nexus q?! And why have an sdcard slot when you can get it all from the cloud?
Seriously, besides additional outputs and having friends over being able to queue up their media (but not any media on their actual device) why is this worth $300?!
I would have been completely happy with hdmi on the nexus 7 instead. If these two moves take off I think sdcard slots and onboard hdmi will start to become a thing of the past.
So, a bunch of posts saying this is wrong because it's misleading, others posting in support of businesses lying (aka: committing fraud). I'm guessing that the majority of people don't understand that there is actually a definition for "Made in the USA." If they're not living up to the standard, it is indeed fraud.
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus03-complying-made-usa-standard
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
You're saying these submissions are limited to specific cultures too? It isn't summer here.
This allows Google to get a line going and then slowly switch over more and more western-made parts.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If you think about it if it is made in America, it can't be blocked from importation while any patent disputes are worked out. +1
First, it's difficult to make anything that's 100% US-made; if nothing else, raw materials such as metals are likely to come from elsewhere. Making anything electronic is pretty much impossible; there are no remaining US suppliers for many components, and even if there were the rare earths used in semiconductor manufacturing would have to be imported. Google could go farther in the direction of US manufacturing. Notably, they could have the circuit boards made and populated here. But that complicates manufacturing because it means that the supply chain is stretched, as most of the important component sources are in the Far East, so choosing not to do that is understandable.
I think he is actually blaming Summer Glau.
So THIS is the key moment when people realize that "made in ___" is pure rubbish? Pull another one!
That a particular manufacturer claims "we don't do Nasty Thing X," is only to be expected. Lying is expected behaviour for any manufacturer, or any other type of corporation. Didn't you read your marketing handouts?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"