US EditionWhy Apple Doesn’t Make iPhones in America – and Probably Won’t
- In 2011, President Barack Obama challenged Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the requirements for shifting iPhone manufacturing to the U.S., a topic that resurfaced in 2025 when President Donald Trump warned current CEO Tim Cook of a 25% tariff if the company did not produce phones domestically.
- Trump's tariff aims to revive U.S. Manufacturing by encouraging domestic production, but Apple faces challenges as China and India provide highly specialized workforce and infrastructure required to assemble millions of iPhones annually.
- Experts and analysts note that relocating iPhone manufacturing operations within the United States would pose significant challenges for Apple due to a notable shortage of skilled labor and the company's heavy dependence on China's unique blend of artisanal expertise, advanced robotics, and technology infrastructure.
- Apple plans to invest $500 billion over four years in U.S. Research, development, and facilities, including a Detroit academy for smart manufacturing, but making iPhones domestically could triple their price, possibly leading to price hikes or design changes.
- Apple must balance economic realities and political pressures, and while it could partly shift production stateside within five years, as some experts suggest, the company remains faced with a tough decision amid evolving trade and manufacturing landscapes.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Felicia Åkerman: This Is Why Apple Will Not Build the Next iPhone in the USA
Donald Trump is not the first president to try to lure Apple's production back to the U.S. But a lack of the right workforce and key components keeps the dream of an all-American iPhone out of reach.
Trump Kills Free Markets, Threatens Apple With Tariffs
A heavily bronzed Trump demanded a single company, Apple, to make iPhones in the US or face punishment with high tariffs. Can you imagine if President Biden made the same demands to a private company? Fox News would have had twenty-four hour a day bitch-feast marathon claiming he ended free market capitalism in America. Republicans in Congress would have convened dozens of congressional hearings claiming Biden was a demon in disguise working for…
Why Apple doesn’t make iPhones in America – and probably won’t - CEO North America
Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he expected the majority of US-bound iPhones to be shipped from India. Reviving US manufacturing has been a tentpole goal of Trump’s presidency. Within the first three months of his second term, he went on a tariff blitz, promising to impose levies on nearly every product made abroad in an effort to boost jobs in the US and rebalance what he saw as unfair practices by America’s trading partners. But ex…
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