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Desktops (Apple) China United States Apple Hardware Technology

Apple Moves Mac Pro Production To China (cnbc.com) 89

Posted by BeauHD from the point-A-to-point-C dept.
Apple is manufacturing its new Mac Pro computer in China (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), shifting abroad production of what had been its only major device assembled in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal reports: The tech giant has tapped Taiwanese contractor Quanta Computer Inc. to manufacture the $6,000 desktop computer and is ramping up production at a factory near Shanghai, the people said. Apple can save on shipping costs for components given the proximity of many of its suppliers to Shanghai, rather than having to supply a factory in the U.S. While the Mac Pro isn't one of Apple's higher-volume products, the decision on where to make it carries outsize significance. Apple's reliance on factories in China to manufacture its products has been an issue for the company, especially under President Trump, who has pressured Apple and other companies to make more in the U.S. An Apple spokesman said the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in the U.S. and includes U.S.-made components. Apple said it supports manufacturing in 30 U.S. states and spent $60 billion last year with more than 9,000 U.S. suppliers.

"Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process," the spokesman said, adding that the company's investments support two million American jobs.
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Apple Moves Mac Pro Production To China More

Apple Moves Mac Pro Production To China

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  • So much for Mac Pro being secure (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Friday June 28, 2019 @06:17PM (#58842900) Journal
    I highly doubt China will refrain from compromising it in some way so they can easily access them remotely.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      If it's built in the USA then I highly doubt that the NSA won't compromise it so they can access them remotely.

      So pick your poison. Personally the NSA is a bigger threat to me because the cooperate with my government. The Chinese can't really do much to me beyond steal some stuff that is mostly open source anyway.

      • How would you like your nice shiny new Mac Pro built in China to be used remotely for a remote attack on a U.S. government system, or the utility grid, or somethign else vitally important? Then you get dragged to some blacksite and locked in a windowless room for at least a few days and interrogated as a possible spy or enemy combatant while they decide whether or not you're a traitor or just a hapless fool who had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile they sift through your life and doubtlessly will find someth

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I'd like to think that sort of thing doesn't happen here any more... And they seem to just skip directly to the "blame China" bit without bothering to interrogate the owners of the botnet computers.

          I think I'm already on a few blacklists so not too worried about that.

          • Ah I see so you're still okay with something in your home that the Chinese government can just access and use however they want? Sorry but that really doesn't sound very smart, I must be misunderstanding you, care to clarify?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I really doubt they can access stuff on my private network. If they somehow did it would trigger a couple of intrusion detection systems.

              Maybe if they have multiple zero days to use against me, but why piss away something so valuable on a low value target?

              • You really don't get it do you? Do you want your computer being part of Chinese sponsored and controlled bot-net? What if you found out it had been used that way, and was part of an attack on, say, an electric utility, causing a power outage that affected a million people? Would you feel nothing? Or are you now going to say "oh, well, I really don't think something like that would ever happen, it's highly unlikely, etc etc etc I really don't think I need to worry about it, they can make my Mac Pro in China,

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  Rick, I think you are the one who doesn't get it. Why do you trust American products not to be part of a botnet, when we know for a fact that the NSA systematically backdoors them and that security from companies like Cisco is an absolute joke? Hard coded root credentials, really?

                  You are doing security wrong. You don't trust the firmware. You can't. It's closed source, you can't audit it (well, actually if you are a decent size company Huawei will let you audit its code, but do you want to invest resources

                  • No, you don't get it. Of course I don't trust my own goddamne government, especially with who is running it, but which is more evil, our government or the Chinese government? At least our own government isn't going to try to kill us all.
                  • Look: If your computer is already compromised out of the box then all your so-called 'network security' is MEANINGLESS because your compromised hardware is already inside your so-called 'secure' network. They've won by default at that point. Apparently you are the one who isn't looking at data security properly, eh? If your shiny new Mac Pro already has hidden hardware doing it's own thing, or compromised firmware, and it can 'phone home' all on it's own, right under the nose of your so-called 'secure netwo

  • Final assembly IS the most important step! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hackingbear ( 988354 ) on Friday June 28, 2019 @06:28PM (#58842974)

    "Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process,"

    Final assembly of all high-priced components made in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the US into the final products, adding 1% of the total value in the assembling, is really what China does, and by the millions of "min gong" [wikipedia.org], their lowest class of laborers with social status only slightly above janitors and street sweepers.

    Yet, Americans will like these final assembly jobs so much and want to compete with min gong, because it satisfies their egos by seeing the "Made in USA" labels outside of the products. At the meantime, they are hopelessly unable to fix the real pain of their life due to some expensive Made in USA products -- healthcare and education.

    • These jobs will be automated in the near future. Paying setup cost + maintenance is lower than ongoing pay + benefits. The bigger problem is the tool chain. To make high tech stuff you need a long list of skills and equipment to make all the sub-assemblies. All of that is being exported. In five years America won't be ABLE to make those expensive computers. Manufacturing gives you Engineering, Engineering gives you Science.

      • In that case, we will just blame China for all the jobs stolen by the robots as well... and we will also accuse China stealing the robotic technologies that enable the robots to steal our jobs. Just blame China and American will feel as high as on marijuana, while they are smoking of that fine herb.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Interestingly janitors and street sweeper are going up in social status in China. The government has been producing public information films telling people to be nice to them and to value their work. I was at an up-market shopping centre in Fujian and they had some playing on the big screen where adverts would normally have been in other countries.

  • Honest question, is America "great again" yet?

  • They simply don't have the funds to make it work in the USA.

  • US labor is somehow too expensive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by melted ( 227442 ) on Friday June 28, 2019 @07:22PM (#58843270) Homepage

    US labor is somehow too expensive to build a computer whose price goes into mid five digits. That's just dumb.

    • Re:US labor is somehow too expensive (Score:5, Funny)

      by ilsaloving ( 1534307 ) on Friday June 28, 2019 @08:23PM (#58843542)

      It's not that. It's just that caucasians are just too damn tall.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Does it matter whether it's 5 digit price or 2 digit price?

      Expensive labor is expensive labor. Why would a pure capitalist care to spend $100 more on a $20000 item if he had to, and the switching costs were low enough?
    • It is not enough to make a profit. It is Apple's job to maximize profit.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by melted ( 227442 )

        Well, I'm not going to be sympathetic when they get fucked in the ass by the US Government then.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jabuzz ( 182671 )

      Thing is socialised labour in the UK is more than enough to make a Raspberry PI at $35. The issue is that not that US labour is too expensive to turn a reasonable profit, but that Apple can make a few extra bucks assembling in China and would rather screw over their host county than make a little less.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hoofie ( 201045 )

        Most are made in Wales - some are made in China and Japan, more for reasons of demand and local to Asia than price specifically.

        Agreed though that Apple is purely about profit so screw US workers.

  • Time to buy a Lenova (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Apple does not care to hire USAians to make products, I do not care to hire Apple

  • Always (Score:3)

    by AHuxley ( 892839 ) on Friday June 28, 2019 @07:30PM (#58843316) Journal
    Going back to to enjoy some full Communism.
    Why not any of the low wage nations that fully support the USA?
    Nations that have supported the US for decades and that have low cost workers?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Temkin ( 112574 )

      Going back to to enjoy some full Communism.

      Why not any of the low wage nations that fully support the USA?

      Nations that have supported the US for decades and that have low cost workers?

      Taiwan is that little island that remains somewhat free / non-communist. You know, the one mainland China keeps claiming is it's territory?

    • The tech giant has tapped Taiwanese contractor Quanta Computer Inc. to manufacture the $6,000 desktop computer and is ramping up production at a factory near Shanghai, the people said. Apple can save on shipping costs for components given the proximity of many of its suppliers to Shanghai

      You could try reading the summary at least, before going on your full communism rant.

  • Maybe that's true.

    Then again had people bought twice as many PCs for half that price instead all things equal more people would work and there would be more computers among the people.

    Had just less money be spend on as many PCs money would had been available to spend on something else.

  • Oh, they may make Mac Pros. They may paint children's toys bound for North America with lead paint. They may taint baby formula with melamine and poison our dog food.

    But all their tech giant execs are belong to us. Heh.

  • The Democrats control Congress now, theyâ(TM)ll have the presidency in a couple of years, and weâ(TM)ll return to the days of thriving working and middle-class manufacturing jobs and greater income equality, not to mention, a bustling Detroit. Just like we had under Obama and would have had with Hilary.

    Just hang in there working-class, help is on the way!

  • worth it (Score:2)

    by sad_ ( 7868 )

    the inflated price of Apple hardware is worth every penny.
    the 'inflated' wage of western employees is not.

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