If you've been following international news in recent weeks, you've noticed that the new president of the United States is taxing imported products from other countries, particularly China, like crazy. Trump's real goal is to produce more on American soil, in order to revitalize the national economy.
Apple has the distinction of being a local company, but one that relies heavily on Asian countries for the production of its devices, particularly the iPhone. An iPhone manufactured in the United States would therefore be a strong symbol for Trump's policy and national pride. But is such a project feasible?
Building the iPhone in the USA is possible, but...££££
Questioned by CNBC, the Trump administration's Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, reported Tim Cook's comments on this subject. According to the latter, the element necessary for this production would be a robotic arm capable of great precision at a very small scale. In other words, replacing human labor.
Indeed, as we have already explained, labor is a large part of the manufacturing budget, and American employees would refuse to work for the pittance their Chinese counterparts are paid. While technology is not yet at the point where robots can replace humans in these tasks, even with AI, advances are rapid and it is unclear what the near future holds. Apple's CEO remains optimistic, according to Lutnick, who states that "Tim Cook wants to build the iPhone here, and he will."
