
Apple could make iPhones in U.S. - spking
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/AC/Apple-could-make-iPhones-in-US-in-future-sources
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dilemma
The potential for labor cost arbitrage is disappearing as China scales the
value chain, its nominal wages increase, the yuan appreciates and purchasing
power increases, all the while the US and EU see decreased real wages.

A moderate increase in manufacturing technology turns employees into
controllers rather than workers, increase's productivity and so makes
manufacturing feasible in the EU and US.

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WhitneyLand
If part of the problem is a cluster of suppliers close together why not
negotiate with Nevada like Tesla did? Apple could buy enough land for an
entire city pretty cheaply and lease it back to strategic suppliers.

The labor part of the problem - not sure why it's such a large part of the
cost. Maybe the machinery to automate does not exist or is cost prohibitive?

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coldtea
> _The labor part of the problem - not sure why it 's such a large part of the
> cost_

It's not. At least according to this, which seems well informed:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-
and...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-
squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&ref=charlesduhigg&pagewanted=all)

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andrewjl
Even if this happens, it's likely that the assembly work will be automated.
Very few manufacturing jobs will result from this.

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davidf18
First iPhones, then iPads, then MacBooks and Macs.

Part of this depends on how much of the suppliers are moved to the states. For
example TSMC and Samsung could fabricate in the US. TSMC fabs the iPhone/iPad
processor as well as the Qualcomm chips in the iPhone, for example.

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onedognight
Intel recently announced that they would start fabbng ARM chips. Intel also
now makes the modem in the GSM iPhone 7. There is clearly a path there.

