Apple Goes All In on China

Apple Inc. is manufacturing its new Mac Pro computer in China, according to people familiar with its plans, shifting abroad production of what had been its only major device assembled in the U.S. as trade tensions escalate between the Trump administration and Beijing….With the previous Mac Pro model, released in 2013, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook trumpeted plans to build it in the U.S. Apple invested $100 million in tooling and other equipment for a plant in Austin, Texas, run by contract manufacturer Flex Ltd. Each computer was stamped with “Assembled in the USA.”

The interesting part of this is the optics. Financially, it doesn’t matter to Apple. The Mac Pro is a tiny part of their revenue, and the extra cost of keeping it in the US would barely show up on their balance sheet. If they thought that moving production to China would produce even the tiniest scintilla of blowback, they wouldn’t do it.

But they don’t. Apparently Donald Trump’s once fearsome tweet machine isn’t what it used to be.