The displacement of production in the United States would therefore require years, even decades of coordinated investment in automation, tools, infrastructure and training. The incitement of manufacturers of foreign components to build installations in the United States would also be a challenge.
“If you are a Chinese supplier who makes a certain type of component that can also be used in a Huawei or Xiaomi phone, you have a lever effect,” explains Mohan. “The incentive to separate these factories is low, because you get a scale and efficiency in China that you will not get if Apple was your only supplier.”
Political uncertainty is another problem, according to Tsay. “The American system as it is able, where everything can completely switch every four years, is not conducive to commercial investment. When people and businesses make investments, they must have a longer horizon than that. ”
Mark Randall was Vice-President Director of Motorola when he belonged to Google and sought to build his American smartphone factory. The idea was not impossible, he said, but “I knew it was going to be incredibly difficult”.
The costs of American labor required to transform raw materials into finished products are “much higher” than elsewhere, he says. The United States, for example, has a shortage of mechanical tool engineers. For a massive change in electronics in the United States, “we are talking about tens of thousands of them”.
The prices create a “nightmare” when modeling the costs of a new factory, adds Randall. “This is why most companies do not make short -term instinctive reactions and knees to the type of change we see today. You must be super strategic and know where you are going in the long term.”
Made in the United States?
A Deeper look has THE provide chain For three parts In THE last iphone models illustrated THE complexity of mobile manufacturing has THE WE, In A industry that need years has TO DO even progressive exchange.
The only component of the touch screen currently manufactured in America is the coverage, produced by Apple Corning's longtime Glassmaker in Kentucky, although the company also has facilities in China and India.
But the OLED screen which helps preserve the battery life and an integrated multi-touch layer which allows an interaction on the screen are mainly produced by Samsung in South Korea.
The basic electronic parts that make the functional screen are combined with the display unit in production facilities in China, before this component is transported to a Foxconn factory to be combined with the rest of The iPhone.
THE metal frame thoroughly captures THE challenge of kidnapping China Since Apple provide chain. For most models, THE envelope East cut And fit Since A block of aluminum using high precision computer digital control (CNC) machines.
Wayne Lam, analyst at Techinsights, says that the process is based on an “army” of these machines, that Apple's sellers in China have spent years to amass and who cannot be reproduced elsewhere. “If Apple went to the production of iPhone onshore, there would not be enough CNC machines that they can buy to respond to the scale of the China ecosystem”, ” he said.
LAM adds: “It is a specialized skill which is almost impossible to reproduce outside China.”
Even THE iphone the simplest component – It is miniature screw – are complex. They are do Since different materials according to on their role, And to have A number of Heads: Philips, flat, Tri-pip And Pentalobe, among others.
But it is the vision in progress which sums up the challenges that the company would be confronted if the production of iPhone was moved to the United States. Apple's design, different from many other smartphones brands, does not use glue to attach the frame, and analysts say it is currently more profitable for Foxconn to hire people to make the vision than to invest in robotic solutions.
