You can’t magic this kind of iPhone manufacturing capacity out of thin air overnight. The factories don’t exist, the production equipment they need hasn’t been built yet, the land to put factories on hasn’t been purchased or even identified, the infrastructure around those sites hasn’t been upgraded to handle the inevitable traffic, the staff have not been recruited or trained, and Apple’s production partners would need to be convinced to deploy factories to America.
The company would also need to build a logistical system to import components and precious metals that the US does not have or cannot supply. (And, yes, recycling and a circular manufacturing system would help with that.)
How long do those problems take to solve?
We have a glimmer of an idea of how long it takes just by calculating the length of time it has taken for Apple to be able to shift about 20% of its iPhone manufacturing to India. Building production capacity to that point has taken a decade, and while iPhone manufacturing partners are rapidly expanding on this, obstacles to completely replacing China in the manufacturing chain remain.
This story originally appeared on Computerworld
