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Some Apple iMacs "Assembled In America"
whisper_jeff writes "A number of newly-purchased standard units are showing an "Assembled in America" notation. While the markings don't necessarily mean that Apple is in the midst of transferring its entire assembly operation from China to the U.S., it does indicate that at least a few of the new iMacs were substantially assembled domestically."
North America or Central America?
The summary and title are misleading. If you read the article, the pictures clearly shows "Assembled in USA". My first thought when I saw "Assembled in America" was that Foxconn has facilities in Brazil now - so perhaps it was really "Assembled in South America". But, no, it really is in the USA. Very cool, Apple.
Bah... There goes the quality...Now you wont have slave workers that have every incentive to make sure that the quality is excellent otherwise they will die a slow apple death....
I couldn't care less about where it was assembled. The parts are still made in China, which is where the quality is real labor comes from. I'll be impressed if they open up actual factories here in the US, and stop using Ireland to funnel cheaper tax rates.
North America has generally seemed to have forgotten how to actually build things. I'm located in Canada, and on those few items my tiny company makes, I'm proud to put the stamp and seal of where it's made on my products...
1. Design product in California ...
2. Outsource assembly to China
3. Import product
4. Assemble the BOX in America, stamp "assembled in the USA" on it
5. Put the chinese product in the US-MADE BOX !
6.
7. PROFIT !
It's like when some government agency claims they're switching to Linux - suddenly the software and dollars come flowing out of Microsoft to them. This is nothing more than a trial balloon and a red flag to the Chinese hoodlums running the shows over there - clean up your act and/or give us cheaper rates, or we'll move.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I couldn't care less about where it was assembled. The parts are still made in China
If you cared about both things then you had better not be typing on a computer less than twenty years old.
Otherwise why are you harping on Apple for slowly shifting some assembly AND manufacture (remember they make chips in Texas) to the U.S. and giving every other company a free pass?
It's obvious it's going to take some time to move much of the whole process back to the U.S., if it can be done at all. At least Apple is trying.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This has been the case for Configure-to-order (CTO) Macs for a long time.
Basically, bulk shipping across the Pacific is cheap; point-to-point shipping across the Pacific is expensive.
Stock-model PCs can be shipped on the proverbial slow boat en masse to a US distribution center, essentially in a convoy, and then unloaded and shipped UPS/Fedex to your door when you order them. You only have to wait for delivery from the dist center, since appropriately configured models are arriving every day.
When you CTO a Mac, a unit has to be specifically configured to your spec before it can be shipped to you. If this were done in China, it would have to be air-freighted directly to your address from China, which is horrendously expensive. (Shipping the unit by boat would take forever.)
I have seen this done even when the "configuration" is to include the full-format wired keyboard instead of the wireless compact keyboard. Apple's fulfillment process basically breaks down to not-custom-at-all (= China) or any-customization-no-mater-how-minor (= US) For US customers, at least. I think they also had a similar operation in Cork Ireland at one time.)
So instead, when you CTO, the manufacturer bulk-ships enclosures, motherboards, LCD panels, and such to a US fulfillment center, then snaps the right pieces together to complete your order. It is quite literally assembly of the system. (About as much work as building your own PC from components from Newegg, I would say.)
I would guess that most PC vendors do much the same thing, but since typical PC towers are much more easily configurable than an Apple iMac, they probably have to do even less work stateside.
I'm going to assume that they mean "assembled in the USA" in the same way that Levis means "made in the USA," which is to say they are fabricated in China, then a tiny sticker or a single screw or some such is applied in the US so that they can legally say the product was made in the US.
RTFA, which quotes the FTC regs on what is allowed to be labeled "USA."
And no, nobody else does that either. Go look; your clothes say "made in Bangladesh" or wherever. The whole "put in one screw" thing is an urban legend from the '60s or something.
if apple hired 4k(or more) people in manufacturing paying them $14($28 payroll tax) it would cost them about $215 million a year without health insurance, and probably best in Texas where living cost's are low compared to California and NYC. Why are corporations looking down on manufacturing like it's something beneath them. Apple is now worth about $500billion(not sure how much in cash or in stocks). A lot of these corporations are just sitting on billions for no apparent reason.
I knew this time would come.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
There are very strict rules (the FTC enforces them) about the terms "Made in the USA" and "Assembled in the USA".
The former means that all or virtually all of a product is made in the US. Obviously, the iMac doesn't quality for this (the FTC proposed defining it as 75% of manufacturing costs were spent in the USA AND the product was "last transformed" in the USA).
"Assembled in the USA" means that it's made up of foreign parts, but the last substantial transformation (or assembly) of the product is done in the US. Interestingly, "screwdriver" assembly of foreign parts does not count. This could easily mean that the iMac was more than importing the parts into the US and put-together there - perhaps the case assembly was produced from US manufacturing processes (including say, the friction-stir-welding), then the rest of the parts (which are China and foreign made out of supply-chain necessity)
Do not confuse the two terms "Made in USA" and "Assembed in USA" as they are significantly different in meanting. The FTC enforces the terminology and has found companies liable for violating "Made in USA" rules. Heck, I think some companies dubiously put "Made in USA from domestic and foreign parts"....
out side of the usa health insurance is not part of the job so that hurts US jobs.
But having manufacturing in the usa makes it easier for the design team to work with the manufacturing team when issues come up and it can also make so some who has done the manufacturing can help the design team with ideas based on doing the job from there side.
That is a million dollar idea - rename one of the manufacturing towns in China to "USA"... god, the amount of cheap stuff you could sell to patriotic 'Mercins with that sticker.
Bow before me, for I am root.
Just keep printing dollars like crazy, and soon you should have all the production back.
"The reason is components. The components are made in asia and shipping costs, export/import duties combined with labour expenses in US or Eu for that matter rises costs so much that it's not feasible to haul parts and build devices elsewhere."
Can't believe I'm responding to this but... wrong. Otherwise why Foxconn plants in Mexico and Brazil? Why does Corning make glass here and ship it to China?
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
There is a town in Japan named "Usa" and back in the 1960's, transistor radios were made there and had a "MADE IN USA" label on them. They did not rename the town to USA, "Usa" was always been its name.
The fact that items made there were imported into the USA bearing the label is true. My parents ran a radio & television shop in the mid-late 1960's and I saw these little Japanese transistor radios with the "MADE IN USA" labels first-hand, and even owned one myself as a child.
"Besides built-to-order machines, the 21.5-inch iMacs are some of the first known examples of an Apple computer being assembled in the U.S., according to Fortune."
I would think that in the past, they were all assembled in the US, at least the Apple II was made in the US. I'm not sure when they started making everything in China, but all of the manufacturing moved there pretty recently. The Apple II was made at the time that stuff was still manufactured here.
Sometimes companies start a new product in the states at a contract manufacturer so they can stay close, and work out the production lines. After that the information goes overseas. I used to work for a CM where we'd get this type of job all the time.
I wasn't aware that USA stood for United South America
My god. You really think that? What is wrong with you people?! A company does something that is in the right direction, and it's because they feel guilty?
And if they don't, it's because they are assholes.
Talk about a catch-22.
What about your other electronic equipment? Where are they designed and manufactured and assembled? Why do they get a fucking free pass?
But it said America (at least according to the summary.)
So where did the domestically part come from in the first place?
What says it's made in the U.S.A.?
There's plenty of countries and likely cheaper workforce in America. Some may be cheaper than that in China.
(I read Caterpillar hired people very cheaply in the US though.)
Businesses should not choose locations on the basis of nationalist prejudice, but on the basis of the relative virtues of each potential location.
Bullshit. It should always be decided by efficiency metrics. Period. Less efficiency is always less optimal.
"His name was James Damore."
Design, components and construction are not important in products any more. It's all about patents and patent litigation.
So maybe the USA is not the cheapest and best quality for production. But the patent lawyers, courts and juries in the USA are second to none!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Please stop assuming every other company gets a free pass. This article is about Apple, which would explain why most of the comments are singling out Apple. Should everyone in this thread attach a list of electronics manufacturers to their comments to make you happy?
Also if you reread the comment you replied to, he was referring to the consumers guilt, not Apple's.
Don't get all high and mighty with your user ID of NULL mister Anonymous Coward.
They choose Mexico and Brazil because their import duty for foreign assembled products is so high. Look at products such a s cars. Foreign assembled and manufactured cars are luxury even though people in Brazil should be able to afford BMWs, Audis, or American/European Fords. They can't so they manufacture their own cars which do not share any likeness from platform, chassis or styling. A ford Focus is not the same as Euro/American versions.
As for Corning glass. Why is fish caught in the UK waters shipped to eastern Europe to be processed and then shipped back to the UK. The labour to process this fish is far cheaper even after the air miles than it would be to do it in the UK.
Well now you know.
Given that Caterpillar will screw with their workers at the drop of the hat, no wonder they're low.
In addition, some of those low wages were a result of unionbusting firms that brought in desperate labor.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
This wasn't about Apple's guilty feelings, it was about consumers. Note, that the article only said *SOME* are manufactured domestically. This knowledge leaves the consumer with the possible hope that their particular unit was not the product of labour that would be illegal in the USA, and can thus could feel potentially less guilty about buying one.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
there ARE non-union states, actually
Which use that status to have work in forms (such as the employer's union of contract/temp/agency labor) that would not pass muster in worker-friendly - that is, non-RTW - states.
I wonder how much of a fan of RTW those states would be if they had to give employer unions(temporary, contract, agency labor) the same provisions of "not forced to accept as a condition of employment".
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
TFA notes the language "Assembled in the USA" so that's pretty clear.
Back in the 1950s Japan was plowsharing the remainder of it's WW II manufacturing plants into manufacturing cheap stamped-metal toys and gadgets, largely for export. "Made in Japan" was synonymous with cheap and shoddy. (This was when they were bootstrapping themselves out of the rubble, before they adopted Demming principles and became noted for high-quality, instead, starting with optics and cameras.)
I hear that, during that time, a small manufacturing city in Japan renamed itself Usa (UH-suh). Then some of their manufacturers stamped "MADE IN USA" on their products, to try to fool the consumers. (Of course that got stopped pretty quickly. But it was a cute hack. B-) )
"Assembled in" doesn't say squat about the components in the assembly. But at least it does tell you where the final assembly process is employing workers.
It will be interesting to see whether the high unemployment rates and the collapsing dollar will be adequate to make bringing manufacturing back to the US economically desirable, or if the regulatory costs and barriers will keep the "exported jobs" exported.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Isn't this just China out-sourcing to USA to cut costs?
http://imgace.com/pic/tag/garden-hose-spray-nozzle-made-in-china-and-made-in-usa/
Just FYI, AC's user ID is 666.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Apparently, stuff imported from The Northern Mariana Islands qualifies for a "Made in USA" label even though there are reports that the stuff actually comes from China. There's even a catchy name for this game: The Saipan Scam
Which makes no sense given that every unit is stamped with where it was assembled.
But it said America (at least according to the summary.)
Trusting the summary to get it's 3 word quote right? You must be new here.
Actually the iMacs have "Assembled in USA".
Really, you didn't even need to RTFA, the first photo shows it.
I saw why poverty the last episode this evening/early night on Swedish television.
That's the one about the U.S. and how the 400 richest got more than half the wealth...
Yay. Way to go voting on the people they rule the most (but they will rule all so whatever, money talks.)
Smart to vote for tax cuts like you are among the winning group.
Save some on the poorest 10% or whatever who more or less got nothing, in reality compared to the big picture cost nothing and make no difference while allowing the rich to get richer.
It's not like those 400 people could do well with 90% of their wealth? .. Much easier than to get more than 10% from everyone else considering they've got so little and will notice for things used in real life.
People are so damn fooled by the money printing to. If they compared the value of their dollars at the pump, gold or even to our SEK they would notice their salaries had droped a lot. If they also take a look at the price of gold, stocks or similar they would also notice that people who got money and not only in their wallet are doing quite well. Thank you for the bailout.
Yeah.. Need to save the banks because? ... If not wealth saved in them would get lost? And who's got the wealth? Relatively?
(I don't really know how it should be solved. A reset of debt will be unfair (but of course hit the rich the most, but they will likely know about it in advance and protect themselves anyway..) High taxes or straight out robbery (from the government or people) and the money and people move. I like the talk about promises of the benefit of globalisation but how it's mostly let money move freely and not people. As in the people who have the most money and companies can take advantage of it to get more and have people under-cut themselves (already suggested in the U.S. to. Look at the state taxes. Compare that to a world where taxes increase globaly instead up to a western level) but the poor workers aren't allowed to move and take a job in a country with better salaries.)
These last 5+ years has been crazy. I guess it became much worse during the Bush era. The poor and middle class was royalty fucked. Enjoy. It's not like you're likely to get it all back :/
royally.. of course :D
This month the lead is Comeback: Why the future of industry is in America
We saw this some years ago when NASDAQ started insourcing, after realizing they'd overshot when doing outsourcing. Now it's visible in companies like Emerson and Apple.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
Really, you didn't even need to RTFA, the first photo shows it.
Of course I didn't. If I had done so I wouldn't point out how it was written in the summary (and more or less question whatever that was true or not.)
Regardless I don't care much whatever iMacs are built in China, the U.S.A. or some other country in North or South America.
If they are built in the U.S. it just show how much China has progressed and the U.S. reverted.
It doesn't have to make sense... I was talking about feelings here, and rather feeble rationalization.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
WTF... Did you just call unions "worker-friendly"? Unions are only friendly to unionized workers. They exist to keep non members from working. Union strikes are effective only because people who would be happy to work are kept out by laws preventing them from being hired. Laws requiring union membership are the equivalent of Jim Crow laws.
i didn't write that...oh you said uid
...
On certain things, yes, every other company does get a free pass. Look at the Foxconn story. To this day, Apple is associated with Foxconn, and every now and then, someone will bring up Apple's labor abuses in China. Nevermind the fact that Microsoft, Google (Motorola), Sony, Nintendo, Samsung, and a slew of other companies have work done by Foxconn in China too. It would at least make me a little happier if journalists would do better to fairly explain who Foxconn are and point out their role in the whole industry. Granted, consumers should do their own research, but after a while the joke gets old, and it becomes tiring hearing about how horrible Apple because of Foxconn from some idiot typing on a Samsung.
And knowing is half the battle.
WTF... Did you just call unions "worker-friendly"? Unions are only friendly to unionized workers. They exist to keep non members from working.
You either don't understand the first thing about unions, or are deliberately misrepresenting them. Unions don't exist to keep anybody from working, they exist to let workers bargain collectively. That means when someone joins your shop, if they don't join the union the union is diluted and marginalized, something employers love.
Want to know how to keep a union out of your workplace? It's easy -- don't fuck your workers over. As the CEO of a then-non union airline once said in the early eighties, "any company that gets a union deserves one."
Unions have no downside to the worker whatever, and many benefits. Unions have no upside to a company, and many detriments. It's no longer me against a big rich corporation with thousands of members, it's now me and the thousands (or hundreds depending on company size) of my fellow workers against the big rich corporation.
Anyone who owns a business and likes unions is incredibly stupid. Anyone who works for a business and doesn't like unions* is equally stupid.
* Yes, there are a few bad unions. Bad unions are in bed with management and have constructed rules that make it hard to get rid of union leadership. There are not many surving unions like that.
Free Martian Whores!
You either don't understand the first thing about unions, or are deliberately misrepresenting them. Unions don't exist to keep anybody from working, they exist to let workers bargain collectively.
Sorry, this is an acceptance of unions' stated purpose while ignoring their practical purpose. For practical purposes unions exist to keep non-members from working. There is an excellent analysis of this behavior in the chapter titled "Of Wages and Profit in the Different Employments of Labour and Stock" in Smith's Wealth of Nations. Back then unions were called "guilds" but it's the same thing.
And, the reason for this, is because that same production knowledge was actually taught to overseas production facilites for a quick buck. PS: That toyota, more than likely, was made in the US. Assuming that's where you live.
Oh, wait, I see by your last sentence that you don't live in America, you just live up your ass.
Not sure how that got modded "overrated" when it's a direct, salient reply correcting the misquote in the summary with the actual words printed on the device itself.
I'd be absolutely delighted to understand what makes that "overrated" when it's already at the base score.
Use Slashdot instead?
I better base them on something..
http://www.whypoverty.net/
http://www.whypoverty.net/en/videos/
It likely reached the U.S. to.
A guild was not a labor union. I find it telling that you had to go centuries back to a pre-industrial revolution book to make your nonexistant point.
Free Martian Whores!
Staffing agencies, contingent work, and other forms of temporary labor function in the same way that a labor union does - they organize workers while providing protection and leverage - for the benefit of an employer against employees.
These forms of less-than-permanent work are not covered by the "no closed shop" provision. If these forms of labor were covered, no person would be forced to accept unionization by any third party (whether it protects the employer or the worker).
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that one of the existing Mac lines will be manufactured exclusively in the United States next year, making the comments during an exclusive interview with Brian Williams airing tonight at 10pm/9c on NBC’s “Rock Center.” http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/06/15708290-apple-ceo-tim-cook-announces-plans-to-manufacture-mac-computers-in-usa
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.