Apple may shift Mac Pro production from US to China
San Francisco: Despite the ongoing US-China trade tensions and American President Donald Trump telling Apple to shift production back home, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker is reportedly moving production of its newly-launched Mac Pro desktop computer to China.
Mac is the only Apple device being assembled in Austin, Texas, while all other products like the iPhones and iPads are being manufactured in China.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, “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”.
An Apple spokesman was quoted as saying that the “new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in the US and includes US-made components”.
Ending a six-year drought for creative professionals, Apple introduced the all-new Mac Pro earlier this month.
The Mac Pro can run three streams of 8K video and 12 streams of 4K video in real time, virtually eliminating proxy workflows. The new Mac Pro that supports up to six displays for a breathtaking 120 million pixels would be available in the fall.
Trump has been telling Cook to shift manufacturing from China to the US.
After Apple hinted at increasing the price of its products owing to tariffs on China last year, he asked the iPhone maker to shift manufacturing from Beijing to Washington.
“Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China – but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive,” Trump tweeted on Saturday.
“Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting!”
Apple in 2017 announced to contribute $350 billion to the US economy over the next five years.
Earlier this month, Cook said that his company’s products have managed to escape the fallout of President Trump’s trade war against China and he thinks it would remain that way.
“The Chinese have not targeted Apple at all, and I didn’t anticipate that happening, to be honest,” Cook was quoted as saying in an interview with CBS News.
Moving beyond China, Apple may look at India to manufacture its products at mass scale.
In a clear signal that India is Apple’s next growth market, Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer Foxconn’s Chairman Terry Gou said in April that the company would begin mass production of iPhones in India.
The 69-year-old billionaire founder and Chairman of Foxconn Technology Group said the move “will get Foxconn more deeply involved in the development of the country’s smartphone industry.
Foxconn is already expanding its manufacturing operations in India, especially at its Sriperumbudur (Chennai) facility.