> “We decided being more transparent about some things is great..."
Ironically the rest of his statements and the article as a whole are extremely vague. $100MM at Apple scale doesn't seem like very much and since (from the article) they won't be doing it themselves I'd love to hear more about where that money is going.
There are a handful of companies that do this work, they will partner with them, my bet is Foxconn as they already work with them. Build a facility and Foxconn will do what it does, with Americans in America. As an American, I think this is good, I wonder how successful it will be but I hope it works out well.
There are a lot of negative comments. From what Tim said it sounds like it is motivated by a desire to do some good, not just more profit. Maybe that is BS, if you can successfully do this, it knocks a few days off the time from order to delivery and that's also a huge edge. I can also see wanting to not give China so much control. I don't see it being devious though.
Sanmina (recently dropped the SCI from its name) still owns that plant in Fountain, CO. I could imagine it might be a big PR win for Apple if they revived what used to be their flagship factory in the US.
How is that misleading, it provides work to people in the US. A case can be made that the factory wouldn't be there if it weren't for Apple's business:
"The A5 processor - the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 - is now made in a sprawling 1.6 million square feet factory in Austin owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics, according to people familiar with the operation. One of the few major components to be sourced from within the United States, the A5 processor is built by Samsung in a newly constructed $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line that reached full production in early December."
Ironically the rest of his statements and the article as a whole are extremely vague. $100MM at Apple scale doesn't seem like very much and since (from the article) they won't be doing it themselves I'd love to hear more about where that money is going.