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Author Topic: iPhones made in America would cost....  (Read 154 times)

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Offline Michael Hardner

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iPhones made in America would cost....
« on: September 13, 2018, 06:22:22 pm »
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Offline Squidward von Squidderson

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2018, 06:29:46 pm »
Even a broken clock (Trump) is right twice a day.

Large companies sold out our countries a long time ago by moving their manufacturing offshore to make more money, avoid environmental regulation and not pay their fair share of taxes. 

The left has known this and has been fighting a losing battle against it for decades. 
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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2018, 07:27:57 pm »
Quote from: the_squid on September 13, 2018, 06:29:46 pm

The left has known this and has been fighting a losing battle against it for decades.

Trade advantage doesn't last forever.  Japan caught up first, then others.  Now the other countries are becoming better citizens.  Keeping them isolated wouldn't have done that.
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Offline TimG

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2018, 03:04:17 am »
Quote from: MH on September 13, 2018, 06:22:22 pm
About the same  ???
Huh? Did you actually read the article? It explained how making them in the US is a hypothetical exercise because the US does not have the people and infrastructure needed to build an iPhone. Actually doing it would require Apple to sink billions into developing that infrastructure and those moneys would need to be recovered from American consumers because Apple would still need plants in other countries to supply those markets (one of Trump's delusions is that global companies would be able to ship products from the US while the US blocks imports).

Once you add up those costs the cost per phone would be much much higher than the hypothetical cost one can calculate by simply assuming workers are paid US level wages.
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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2018, 06:08:22 am »
Quote from: TimG on September 14, 2018, 03:04:17 am
Huh? Did you actually read the article?

Yes.

Paragraph 4:

Quote
If Apple managed to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States, analysts say that assembling the iPhone here wouldn’t actually make it much more expensive. As Konstantin Kakaes wrote in the MIT Technology Review in 2016, putting together the iPhone in the US from parts made abroad would only cost about $30 to $40 more per phone, a modest increase for a device with a 64 percent profit margin. Even if every part was made in the US, an iPhone would cost about $100 more, Kakaes concluded, assuming raw materials were still purchased on global markets.

Quote
It explained how making them in the US is a hypothetical exercise because the US does not have the people and infrastructure needed to build an iPhone. Actually doing it would require Apple to sink billions into developing that infrastructure and those moneys would need to be recovered from American consumers because Apple would still need plants in other countries to supply those markets (one of Trump's delusions is that global companies would be able to ship products from the US while the US blocks imports).

Yes, and that makes sense also.

Quote
Once you add up those costs the cost per phone would be much much higher than the hypothetical cost one can calculate by simply assuming workers are paid US level wages.

The costs illustrated in the paragraph I quoted don't appear to assume those development costs, and basically assume the infrastructure is already there. 
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Offline segnosaur

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2018, 12:36:03 pm »
Quote from: MH on September 13, 2018, 06:22:22 pm
https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/9/13/17851052/apple-iphone-price-china-trump-us-trade

About the same  ???
While that article might have some accurate numbers, I think its reasoning and conclusions may be incorrect.

First of all, assuming the numbers are correct, it points to 2 phones costing around $700-$1000, and suggests that the price increase would be between $30-100 (depending on whether the phones are manufactured with imported or domestically created parts.) Depending on the combination of factors, that's a price increase anywhere from 3%-14%. If you bump up the price of a product by 1/10th, consumers will probably notice. (Brand loyalty may keep some customers in the fold but at that type of increase they will lose some sales, especially if, for example, Android phones continued to be cheaper.)

Secondly, the article seems to rely far too much on 'gross profit margins' when it suggests that costs could "be absorbed", which seems to ignore issues like taxes and (probably more importantly) Research and Development costs. Those R&D costs would not be changing.

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Offline ?Impact

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2018, 01:36:14 pm »
Naturally Apple guards its cost structure closely, but many people have tried to make educated estimates. The typical iPhone costs about $160-$400 for the components (depending on model, memory size, display, etc). Other than the processor, the rest of the major components are from outside sources. Even the Apple processor is manufactured by a third party fab (TSMC - Taiwan). The most expensive component would be the screen (Samsung). About half of the other major component suppliers are foreign and most of the rest manufacture overseas anyway (Qualcomm, Broadcom, Cirrus, Skyworks, Bosch, ST Micro, Murata, Sunwods, ALPS, Toshiba).

On top of that we have R&D, assembly, packaging, distribution, marketing, and other overhead costs.

Is Dotard suggesting that Apple only purchase American components? Does he even have a remote clue how the supply chain of modern electronics works?
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Offline wilber

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2018, 02:21:07 pm »
Quote from: ?Impact on September 14, 2018, 01:36:14 pm

Is Dotard suggesting that Apple only purchase American components? Does he even have a remote clue how the supply chain of modern electronics works?
s

About as well as he understands the auto or any other manufacturing industry.
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Offline Queefer Sutherland

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2018, 04:10:22 pm »
There's a reason Apple makes iphones overseas.  They aren't stupid.  If it saves them around $40 per iphone (as the article guesses) to make it in China rather than the US then $40 x a gazillion iphones (and laptops, desktops, accessories etc) adds up.
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Offline ?Impact

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Re: iPhones made in America would cost....
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2018, 04:36:24 pm »
Quote from: Coonlight Graham on September 14, 2018, 04:10:22 pm
If it saves them around $40 per iphone (as the article guesses) to make it in China rather than the US then $40 x a gazillion iphones (and laptops, desktops, accessories etc) adds up.

Yes, if the $40 is correct then on iPhones alone that would be $8 billion a year.
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