Apple can't assemble iPhones in US: Unexpected reason revealed
Apple does not dare to move iPhone production to the US (photo)
The idea of manufacturing iPhones in the United States remains popular in political circles and society, but in reality, it is nearly impossible. 9to5Mac, which specializes in Apple news, explains why the Apple smartphone will not be produced in the US anytime soon.
As "The Financial Times" has discovered, the issue lies not only in logistics and the scale of supply chains but also in the decades it would take to recreate manufacturing conditions comparable to those in China.
Modern iPhone models use about 2,700 components, with production spread across more than 700 factories around the world. Only 30 of Apple’s suppliers operate entirely outside of China.
The most efficient part of the production chain is in China, where enterprises are located close to one another and can quickly respond to each other's needs. It took decades to build such an ecosystem.
Workers in the production hall of Foxconn’s technology park in Zhengzhou (photo: VCG)
Some components are indeed made in the US—for example, the protective display glass and Face ID lasers. However, even in these cases, the contribution is partial: other elements of the display, including touch layers and backlighting, are produced in South Korea and assembled in China.
Moving iPhone assembly to the US would likely have little economic impact, according to experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Under such a model, most of the process would be automated, and therefore would not create jobs in the US—one of the main political goals.
The American system as it stands, where everything can completely flip-flop every four years, is not conducive to business investment. When people and companies make investments, they need to have a longer horizon than that, said Andy Tsay, professor of information systems at Santa Clara University.
Thus, despite long-standing calls—starting with Donald Trump in 2016—to manufacture iPhones in the US, the reality remains: Apple is still dependent on China, and changing that shortly is not feasible.
