Pegatron Ready to Build iPhones in the U.S. If Apple 'Is Willing to Absorb the Costs'

it's tough to compete with factory work when other nations will pay 7 cents a day for their work force.

iPhone manufacturing at Foxconn pays something more like $2.50 per hour, or about 285x what you claim. Let's not look for the absolutely lowest pay that exists on the planet and apply it to every job in every industry. Also, let's not claim that these jobs, with the exchange rate and rental rates that aren't anything like San Jose, CA are "slave wages." It would be wonderful if every place in the world had comfortable, big homes for everyone with two-car garages, but that's not the case. Still, that's no excuse to overtly lie to make a point.

As it becomes more and more automated, the cost of labor will be less and less prohibitive. A factory full of robots is eventually just as viable in the US as it is in China.

Translation: "if the US taxpayers will absorb the costs via Trump incentives".

Except these factory jobs are likely to require skilled technicians and engineers to run a highly complex automated factory, not workers on a production line of assembling phones. The shop floor workers will most likely do some minor assembly but it won't be a return to the old days where lots of workers churned out product. Besides cost production volume requirements will drive automation to avoid issues like plagued the Mac Pro where the production line couldn't meet demand.

US manufacturing's future is high tech automated production operated by skilled staff with minimal human work on the line; except for possibly high end expensive or custom items where production costs are much less of the final price. As much as many people believe factory jobs like in the 50's and 60's will come back it isn't going to happen; especially since consumers don't want to pay the premium.

50's and 60's? We had manufacturing jobs here aplenty as late as the 90's. We are still hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. There are articles describing in painful detail recent accounts of workers being asked to train the foreign replacements who will be taking their jobs when factories are relocated to other countries.

Meanwhile, I've been reading article after article on my Apple Newsfeed about my generation and younger dying off due to drug use. There was an article yesterday about how police are having to become social workers in a sense, to deal with the explosive drug problem in many areas of the country. I don't think that the loss of jobs and the growing drug problem are unrelated, given that the problems seem worse in former industrial towns.

I'm the daughter of an Asian immigrant, but that immigrant (now a citizen) raised me to "be American and buy American" when feasible. I've kept to cars manufactured right here in the US. And while I have done my fair share of complaining about the rising costs of iPhones, I would feel happy to buy one at a premium that was made in my country. Providing that the quality is up to standard and the NSA doesn't load it up with spyware ala Cisco ;) : https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140518/17433327281/cisco-goes-straight-to-president-to-complain-about-nsa-intercepting-its-hardware.shtml
o_O

I can't ever say I'm always thrilled with our government, especially the part of it that is not elected and beyond any checks and balances on its power and reach. But I do care about my fellow citizens and our problems. I care about other parts of the world, too, but it's easier to start with the problems in your own backyard. And it's possible to sometimes address both.

I'm older and at a place in life where I can do this. I might not always be. And it certainly would have been a financial hardship when I was in my thirties and younger. So I am understanding that this is not an appealing idea to a lot of people or to Apple. I'm just speaking for myself here, of what I'd like to see and be able to do. An ideal. But I know we don't live in a world where ideals can always be realized. It is what it is.

So, no iPhone manufacturing in the US.

Sorry American workers: you priced yourself out of this industry.

Yeah OR corporate greed and miserable, whiny shareholders who are never happy "priced" it out of the industry. Why do companies have to be such cheap bastards? C'mon, pay people well and much of it comes back via extra spending. Apple tends to be a bleeding heart company when it comes to social issues so Im shocked they arent more keen on "sharing" profits via higher wages. Guess their "bleeding heart" agenda only applies to transgender bathroom & sexuality issues. Great.

I think Apple should make a "Made in the USA" version of the iPhone one of these years and charge whatever premium they have to to cover the higher labor costs and just see how well the phone sells.

Most people under age 30 probably wouldn't want to buy the more expensive, "Made in the USA" version; but there are plenty of people in the 35-65 age range that have more disposable income and I think a good number of those people would pay more for a phone that was made in the USA. I would strongly consider buying an iPhone that was made in the USA to support American workers.