Apple CEO Tim Cook had announced early December that Apple will be moving back its Mac production to the U.S. with a $100 million investment. However, he did not specify who the Cupertino Company will be working with or what exactly is the product it plans to manufacture in the U.S. All these questions were answered when it was confirmed that Apple will be moving manufacture process of its Mac mini desktop line to the U.S. facilities of its long-time partner, Foxconn.
According to a DigiTimes report, Apple will likely move Mac mini production to one of Foxconn's U.S. plants. However, it is not clear at this point in time if the Taiwanese manufacturer will build a new plant or retool an existing facility for the production of Mac mini devices. Foxconn has nearly 15 operating bases in the U.S, the report said.
Citing sources from the upstream supply chain, the report states that Foxconn plans to start recruiting workers in 2013 for new automated production lines. According to market analysts, Mac mini may hit as high as 1.4 million units by year-end. This is more than a 40 percent increase in an year. Now, with the specification upgrade in October 2012, Mac mini shipments are expected to go up by another 30 percent to reach 1.8 million units in 2013, reveals the Digitimes Research data.
Although Apple and Foxconn are yet to confirm the news, experts feel there are good reasons to believe the Taiwanese publication's report. According to 9to5mac, the 21.5-inch iMac products are already being shipped with the "Assembled in USA" tag. It should be noted that according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations, just putting together foreign parts in the U.S. doesn't entitle a product to be labeled as "Assembled in USA." According to the FTC guidelines, "substantial transformation" should take place in the U.S. for the label to be used. With all these reports circulating around, Tim Cook's dream of seeing American-made Apple products may soon become a reality.
