Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/20/apple-considering-moving-hardw.html
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US based phone sales are down across the sector, but Apple’s tablet sales are way up, and their Apple Watch and AirPod sales are huge right now. Like pretty much everyone else with China-based factories, as long as they’re eating the huge costs of these stupid tariffs, they need to either raise prices or move production. And this is a really good excuse to diversify.
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Soon Thailand, Vietnam etc can have their oppressive governments get a cash injection. I am not convinced it will substantively change things for the better. But Apple will get leverage to drive supplier costs lower, so it’s “good”
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“Apple has asked its major suppliers to evaluate the cost implications of shifting 15% to 30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia”…
But… But… But… Trump PROMISED that they’d be bringing those jobs BACK TO 'MURKA! This sounds like Tim Apple is just shifting jobs to an even CHEAPER market than China. Well done, Donnie. So much for “Promises Made, Promises Kept”.
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Note to Trump: Notice they are shifting to somewhere else in Asia, not the US. I guess you will have to “Tariff all the Countries!”
Note too - if they did move production to the US due to higher tariffs, it may make them a little more competitive in the US market, but they would be less competitive on the international market.
Tariffs are almost always a bad deal.
Heck you could even say the tariff we have on trucks HELPS US automakers. But it HURTS us consumers because it hinders competition.
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I would pay much more for a cellphone if I could be sure there was no slave labor involved. the same for an avocado, frankly. Companies that manufacture overseas should be hit with a two-part tariff: Add the cost of what it would mean for a minimum-wage American employee to make it … and add a cost for the overall amount of Carbon Dioxide shipping it here created. You’d see Ikea furniture and made-in-China crap go up in cost … so much so that, god forbid, we may have to pay Americans to make things here.
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Producing in China and “no slave labor” are not mutually exclusive. Fairphone is doing this for some time now, and there’s a new company here in Germany, Shiftphone, which takes a similar approach. Compared to western standards, the wages are still low, but the overall working conditions seem much better than at the other sweatshops of the area.
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