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People don’t realize how little labor is involved in electronics. Here is one of the fastest growing companies in Canada: http://www.aeicm.com/ August Electronics Inc. in Alberta. It’s one of a number of contract electronics manufacturers that I’ve seen pop up in the US and Canada the last 3-5 years. It’s basically capital investment. Similar to injection molding, you basically need 1-2 people to feed a bunch of machines with components. Everything else is automated. Maybe a little more QC at the end.
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Mexico manufacturers a lot of computers, TVs, cell phones. I’m sure it is mostly assembly, but still. From my experience, most of those facilities are pretty light on manual labor too.
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Tim Cook’s expertise is logistics. I’m sure that this will save Apple money. There will be significant tax advantages in terms of avoiding tariffs and getting tax credits. I don’t see anything altruistic or patriotic. It’s a smart business move.