Ironically, it was Tim Cook in his former role as Apple’s chief operating officer that helped lead the global shift to foreign manufacturing some 15 years ago with the outsourcing of iPod assembly to Foxconn. In 2019, just before the pandemic, Apple announced that its 5,999 Mac Pro computer would be built in a facility in Austin, Texas, expanding on efforts it began in 2013. Those jobs aren’t coming back any time soon, if ever. And they were delivered over 22 trips, often in a Lexus driven by the maker’s owner.Īs the NYT explains, no country, and certainly not the US, can compete with the scale of the Chinese supply chain, the sheer number of skilled workers, the infrastructure that can move things around quickly, or the relatively cheap labor pool. Eventually, Apple found a supplier in Texas that could produce 28,000 custom screws, although they weren’t the exact screws needed nor in the right quantity, according to the NYT. In Texas, where they say everything is bigger, it turned out the screw suppliers were not.Īfter creating months of delay, Apple ended up ordering the screws from China. In China, Apple relied on factories that can produce vast quantities of custom screws on short notice. But if you’re looking for a solid anecdote explaining why, then The New York Times delivers with a story about a screw, and how it, and other factors, handcuffed Apple’s ability to mass-produce the ill-fated Mac Pro in Texas.īut when Apple began making the $3,000 computer in Austin, Tex., it struggled to find enough screws. Anyone who understands how iPhones and Macs are made knows how hollow President Trump’s boasts about Apple bringing production back to the United States are.
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