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.

Comments

No, it isn't misleading

[geekoid]

The housing and assembly is done in the US.

The article is from someone who will go to pedantic lengths to justify their hate.

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[David89]

Some US production is way better than none

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[bill_mcgonigle]

There is an implied meaning in the "Made in the USA" label that they're trying to take advantage of.

Nobody who knows anything about electronics thinks that the entire Q is made from raw minerals in the USA.

Heck, the Q is more 'Made in the USA' than many automobiles advertised as such.

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[synapse7]

Not trying to justify any hate, but maybe it should read assembled in the USA? Also, is there a threshold for electronics to meet for made in the USA?

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[slimjim8094]

Do you similarly object to computers "made in China" but using chips made in the USA and Israel?

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[bill_mcgonigle]

Counterexample: Me. If I see "Made in the USA", I wouldn't expect to find out it had been made in China.

So, you expect all parts, pieces, components, and processes materials to be made, from raw materials, in the USA if it has that label?

Do the raw materials have to be mined or grown here as well?

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[mr1911]

All manufacturing is menial work.

A statement made by someone who clearly has no understanding of manufacturing.

We spent years transitioning manufacturing offshore. Building factories, transferring knowledge, and building the skill of the workforce. Now we complain we can't manufacture anything.

I really wish you were right about manufacturing being menial. That would mean it is a trivial task to start making things here. Unfortunately you are quite mistaken.

Re:No, it isn't misleading

[Dahamma]

If you go through the whole teardown, only 2 parts (the Ethernet connector and an oscillator) were definitively shown to be made in China - that's probably less than 20 cents in parts for the whole device. Sure, there are a few chips and parts made in S. Korea or Thailand, and a few more from companies with fabs all over the world. The PCBs, PSU, case, base, chip stuffing, and assembly were apparently all done in the US. That's probably better than 90% of the other products labeled "Made in the USA" these days, so give it a rest...

Now, can we stop confusing the debate and making shit up that wasn't even in any of the articles cited by this really misleading summary?

Well, that's what we get...

[KingSkippus]

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.

Slashdot story stretches "News" Label

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Sometimes it's realistically impossible

[Quila]

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.