Malcolm Owen
The Mac Pro may be celebrated by some customers as being an American-made product, but shipments in Europe are assembled in China.
The continued use of a facility in Texas to build the Mac Pro has been a big story for Apple, after questions about the Mac Pro's potential assembly in China were raised. Despite publicly confirming the Mac Pro will be assembled from the facility, this may only be true for customers based in the United States.
One early order for the Mac Pro in France was delivered on Monday, MacGeneration revealed, but evidently it wasn't produced in the same factory. An inspection of the casing reveals the text "Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China," indicating it was made elsewhere.
It is likely Apple is only employing the Texas facility for orders within North America, while assembly partners in China will be handling the rest of the world. In June, it was reported Apple had signed with contractor Quanta Computer for assembly, using a factory near Shanghai.
Apple has previously used the same Texas facility for Mac Pro production, specifically for its predecessor, the 2013 Mac Pro.
The reports of Apple's shift in Mac Pro production to China was countered by Apple itself, including a brief and widely-publicized tour of the Texas factory with President Donald Trump in November. During the tour, Apple CEO Tim Cook touted the Mac Pro as "an example of American design, American manufacturing, and American ingenuity."
While the continued use of the factory may have been a way for Apple to avoid some of the tariffs applied against imports of products and components from China as part of the ongoing trade war, this may not be the case for long. On December 12, the US signed a limited trade deal with China that drew back some existing tariffs and canceled another set due to be enforced on Sunday, with a view to potentially scrapping other tariffs in the future.
Stephen Silver
Christine McKee
Charles Martin
Amber Neely
35 Comments
Well that's new... Never mentioned before AFAIK
So much for hoping that Apple was only cosying up to China until they weren't dependent on Chinese Factories. :'(
Well that sounds like President Trump was actually right, he did keep the Texas factory open, if Apple is otherwise ignoring it outside the US, also explains why there has been very little advertising of it being built in the US like the 2013 was.
Is that a secret code underneath that panel? B)
Looks like AppleInsider's Mac Pro came missing a part.