Thread: Google tries "made in USA" for latest electronic device...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/te....html?_r=1&hpw

According to the basic economic law of capitalism, those devices will be eventually made in somewhere other than USA IMHO.

Nice- Makes me wish I didn't already have a Kindle Fire...

That's good news, would be nice to see some of the small electronic components manufacturing to populate boards with come back as well, I doubt there's much of those left if any. Maybe then the military can stop worrying about china's counterfeit electronics, as opposed to the other "genuine chinese electronics."

Recently when trying to decide on a powder scale I came across this one with the majority of the components made in USA, definitely the one I will be getting. If it can be done with a scale, should be doable with a product that can sell by the millions. I think one big challenge of mass production in north america is the lack of hands for assembly, it would have to be extremely automated to make 10 million iphones in the US per month, vs in China its easy enough to find a million people with tiny hands to do it for cheap.

digital scale, reloading scale, electronic scale




I think a lot of manufacturing got offshored not because it had to be, but simply because it could be and it made the margins even better and passed on the costs. I don't believe that a $100 designer shirt has to be made in china or bangladesh for $.08 in order to make a profit.

How the hell did Mfg dot com get quoted in that article? We will have another crop of stary eyed "shop owners" with a 1 car garage and auction score 1950 bridgeport showing up to ask about them.

I have a little tidbit to add to this. In the big industrial park that is Pryor Oklahoma there is a building occupied by Google. No signs that I can see. Nothing to indicate who's occupying this big metal building. But, there are little jeep looking SUV's patrolling the perimeter 24-7 emblazoned with the google logo on the door. Google rent-a-cops. I think it's a server farm. I can zoom right in on it with google earth, but I don't know how to cut and paste the location so you guys can see it.

This complex is about 20 acres big, total, I'd say. Out south of the building there is a large graveled lot. In it are 30 large, round white tanks (about the size of a railroad tank car) setting on the ground, all lined up in rows- no visible plumbing. On the west edge of that building are what I think are cooling towers- not in the style of a power plant with steam billowing up in the air, but lots of plumbing going to them.

There is a power plant about 3 miles from them, and the electric company had a new transmission line built straight from the electric plant direct to the Google place, plus a new transformer substation to step it down. Not much chance of that server farm losing power!

Our railroad tracks go past about a quarter mile south of them. I go past there often. When they were first building the place, it was a beehive of activity out by our tracks- digging a big hole and burying a big concrete box. Then, they laid lots of fiber optic to the box and on to the building, then covered the box to where there is only a small cast iron manhole visible to the eye.

Recently, south and east of that building there is all kinds of earth moving going on- around the clock. Dozers, scrapers, graders, water spraying trucks, dirt hauling trucks, big electric light plants all over the place.
I couldn't figure out who or what was going on, but it's just a stones throw from me on the train.
I asked one of the other railroaders who works that industrial park and he said "google bought 300 more acres of ground out there, and that's who's having all the dirt work done."

So, could be another server farm, or maybe something to do with manufacturing.

Originally Posted by Mebfab

How the hell did Mfg dot com get quoted in that article? We will have another crop of stary eyed "shop owners" with a 1 car garage and auction score 1950 bridgeport showing up to ask about them.

That wouldn't be _nearly_ as funny if it weren't sadly true...

Originally Posted by Mebfab

How the hell did Mfg dot com get quoted in that article? We will have another crop of stary eyed "shop owners" with a 1 car garage and auction score 1950 bridgeport showing up to ask about them.

I wondered the same thing. As soon as I saw the name Mitch Free, my first thought was Of all the people in this country, why did they have to pick the biggest boil on the ass of manufacturing to interview or quote?

If I knew they needed someone to interview I would have left the bar early. Even if it was wing night.

Honestly, how the hell did they dig that guy up?

Originally Posted by Mebfab

If I knew they needed someone to interview I would have left the bar early. Even if it was wing night.

Honestly, how the hell did they dig that guy up?

It's been my experience that some of the biggest hacks I know get by on attitude( they truly believe they are the best but if they knew how much they sucked they would hang themselves) and the perception they convey to others who don't know any better.

So in a nutshell they believe they're "it" and they lead gullible people to do the same.

Originally Posted by SND

digital scale, reloading scale, electronic scale

Thanks
10 characters.

You'd be surprised just how little more it costs for something to be made in the USA verses China today.

The iPhone that retails for $600 without a contract, costs about $190 to make at Foxconn's plants in China. Costs to manufacture that kind of quantities in the US? No more then $50 per phone, and most figures estimate it to be within the $30 mark.

Remember that is on a $600 phone. Even at the $50 figure, that is under 9% of the total cost to make it in the USA instead of in China.

Dimitri

Originally Posted by Dimitri

You'd be surprised just how little more it costs for something to be made in the USA verses China today.

The iPhone that retails for $600 without a contract, costs about $190 to make at Foxconn's plants in China. Costs to manufacture that kind of quantities in the US? No more then $50 per phone, and most figures estimate it to be within the $30 mark.

Remember that is on a $600 phone. Even at the $50 figure, that is under 9% of the total cost to make it in the USA instead of in China.

Dimitri

I kinda doubt that figures in all the costs to bring all the components that are not manufactured in North america anymore, plus whatever sanctions they might decide to put on it "rare earth style". real costs to set up the infrastructure in the US to produce these quantities, other taxes, health care if offered to employees, and imagine how much unions would be dying to get into a place with that many workers.... Apple would not be paying that $190 a phone you say if they could get it for $30-50 in the US.

Damn it, sorry for the confusion, I meant $30-50 more then the made in China price. Not the other way around.

The iPhone is $190 in China, but can be made as low as $220 in the US, up to $240. On a $600 retail phone.

Most of the components in the iPhone, like most made in China electronics do not even come from China, they are sourced from Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and even the USA. Specifically Korea for the iPhone due to Samsung's products being used for Apple's phone.

Things like Flash memory, microcontrollers, etc are still very much made in rather large quanities in the US, especially the higher end models you'd find in cell phones as opposed to the cheap ($0.20 each) that control your microwave. Texas Instruments, Intel, National Semiconductor, Fairchild, Analog Devices, NXP, IBM, IDT, On Semiconductors, NEC, IM Flash Technology, Micron Semiconductors, International Rectifier, etc all still have semiconductor fab shops in the US, and many have been expanded greatly recently.

Your computer may be made in China, but the Intel processor in it, is more then likely made in the USA or Israel, not China (unless you buy a Celeron or the older Core series of CPUs then its made at a few plants including Intel's single Chinese plant, but the i3 to i7 series are not made there at all). Just as one example. Same with your fancy new SSD hard drive that is labelled "Made in China" or "Made in Malaysia", most of them are using IM Flash's chips which are currently all made in the USA.

Dimitri

Originally Posted by JoeE.

I have a little tidbit to add to this. In the big industrial park that is Pryor Oklahoma there is a building occupied by Google. No signs that I can see. Nothing to indicate who's occupying this big metal building. But, there are little jeep looking SUV's patrolling the perimeter 24-7 emblazoned with the google logo on the door. Google rent-a-cops. I think it's a server farm. I can zoom right in on it with google earth, but I don't know how to cut and paste the location so you guys can see it.

This complex is about 20 acres big, total, I'd say. Out south of the building there is a large graveled lot. In it are 30 large, round white tanks (about the size of a railroad tank car) setting on the ground, all lined up in rows- no visible plumbing. On the west edge of that building are what I think are cooling towers- not in the style of a power plant with steam billowing up in the air, but lots of plumbing going to them.

There is a power plant about 3 miles from them, and the electric company had a new transmission line built straight from the electric plant direct to the Google place, plus a new transformer substation to step it down. Not much chance of that server farm losing power!

Our railroad tracks go past about a quarter mile south of them. I go past there often. When they were first building the place, it was a beehive of activity out by our tracks- digging a big hole and burying a big concrete box. Then, they laid lots of fiber optic to the box and on to the building, then covered the box to where there is only a small cast iron manhole visible to the eye.

Recently, south and east of that building there is all kinds of earth moving going on- around the clock. Dozers, scrapers, graders, water spraying trucks, dirt hauling trucks, big electric light plants all over the place.
I couldn't figure out who or what was going on, but it's just a stones throw from me on the train.
I asked one of the other railroaders who works that industrial park and he said "google bought 300 more acres of ground out there, and that's who's having all the dirt work done."

So, could be another server farm, or maybe something to do with manufacturing.

Cant get into much specifics but that yes that is what you say it is. I have a friend that works for the company that built it and the confidentiality agreements were like I had never heard of before.

Originally Posted by Dimitri

The iPhone is $190 in China, but can be made as low as $220 in the US, up to $240. On a $600 retail phone.

Dimitri

I wouldn't doubt those cost estimates at all. There's a place here that does production assembly of some kind of military electronic stuff. I've done a fair bit of work for them in the past, and its pretty amazing to watch just how fast those workers (primarily women) can put that stuff together. Probably just as fast as Chinese workers, if not faster, so the only real difference is that the American workers get a little more than the dollar an hour of their Chinese counterparts for the work.

Originally Posted by chinahand

According to the basic economic law of capitalism, those devices will be eventually made in somewhere other than USA IMHO.

Sorry chump but capitalism alone isnt what drives all consumers

Originally Posted by Speedie

.............. capitalism alone isnt what drives all consumers

True but maybe most of them Do you go shopping often with your wife?

Originally Posted by JoeE.

I have a little tidbit to add to this. In the big industrial park that is Pryor Oklahoma there is a building occupied by Google. No signs that I can see. Nothing to indicate who's occupying this big metal building. But, there are little jeep looking SUV's patrolling the perimeter 24-7 emblazoned with the google logo on the door. Google rent-a-cops. I think it's a server farm. I can zoom right in on it with google earth, but I don't know how to cut and paste the location so you guys can see it.

This complex is about 20 acres big, total, I'd say. Out south of the building there is a large graveled lot. In it are 30 large, round white tanks (about the size of a railroad tank car) setting on the ground, all lined up in rows- no visible plumbing. On the west edge of that building are what I think are cooling towers- not in the style of a power plant with steam billowing up in the air, but lots of plumbing going to them.

There is a power plant about 3 miles from them, and the electric company had a new transmission line built straight from the electric plant direct to the Google place, plus a new transformer substation to step it down. Not much chance of that server farm losing power!

Our railroad tracks go past about a quarter mile south of them. I go past there often. When they were first building the place, it was a beehive of activity out by our tracks- digging a big hole and burying a big concrete box. Then, they laid lots of fiber optic to the box and on to the building, then covered the box to where there is only a small cast iron manhole visible to the eye.

Recently, south and east of that building there is all kinds of earth moving going on- around the clock. Dozers, scrapers, graders, water spraying trucks, dirt hauling trucks, big electric light plants all over the place.
I couldn't figure out who or what was going on, but it's just a stones throw from me on the train.
I asked one of the other railroaders who works that industrial park and he said "google bought 300 more acres of ground out there, and that's who's having all the dirt work done."

So, could be another server farm, or maybe something to do with manufacturing.

GPS coordinates please

Let me see if I can figure out how to do that......the GPS thingy,,,,,

OK, I got them...I will send you a PM with them.....so I am not visited by the guys in White helicopters -(white is Googles rent-a-cop vehicle colors, so they probably have white helos' too.) They may not appreciate me giving the co-ordinates to their unmarked building via the internet.