The jobs manufacturing iPhone/iPad/iPod aren't coming back, but I could see Apple bringing the manufacturing of computers (especially desktops) to the US.
For one, the computers have a higher BOM and price, so an increase in manufacturing costs takes a smaller share of the total profit. Plus they only make 5 million computers a quarter, compared to 41 million iPhones+iPads.
iDevices are released on an annual schedule, which means delays are extremely costly (especially if they are timed for the holidays). This requires a very tight supply chain. It isn't as big a deal if the iMac slips by a month.
Finally, the market for iDevices is extremely competitive compared to desktops. Execution matters way more for iDevices and a lot more money is on the line. It is easy to experiment with iMacs because there is much less pressure in that market segment.
It's not clear to me iPhone/iPad/iPod won't come back at some point. The news that Foxconn has started replacing workers with machinery means the labor cost portion of manufacturing is going to go down, regardless of geographical location. Robots in China aren't going to be any cheaper than Robots in the US, I don't think.
Of course, the number of people required will be a lot lower, so the number of jobs brought in likely won't be that large.
I've heard the supply chain argument a lot, so it might take a while, but the original reason for outsourcing, ie: low labor costs, is eventually going to go away.
all you sem to be saying is that "Apple can do it" though. Juat because they can doesn't mean they should. Given that they're a for-profit corporation, I'm betting on some kind of financial incentive.
For one, the computers have a higher BOM and price, so an increase in manufacturing costs takes a smaller share of the total profit. Plus they only make 5 million computers a quarter, compared to 41 million iPhones+iPads.
iDevices are released on an annual schedule, which means delays are extremely costly (especially if they are timed for the holidays). This requires a very tight supply chain. It isn't as big a deal if the iMac slips by a month.
Finally, the market for iDevices is extremely competitive compared to desktops. Execution matters way more for iDevices and a lot more money is on the line. It is easy to experiment with iMacs because there is much less pressure in that market segment.