What with the rumour mill about Apple's AAPL +1.44% upcoming iPhone 6 (or whatever they’re going to call it) hyping up into a gorgeous crescendo a small little point about why such mass electronics manufacturing just isn’t going to return to the US in any foreseeable timescale. It’s just not about the cost of US labour as compared to that of foreign labour: it’s much, much, more about the flexibility of that foreign labour as opposed to US labour.
Here’s the specific piece of news that makes that point:
A recent rumor suggested that Apple is planning to introduce the iPhone 6 sometime in September, and today another pair of reports have surfaced that appear to back that claim up.
According to Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News, Hon Hai/Foxconn will begin mass production of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 during the third week of July. Production of the larger 5.5-inch model is expected to get underway during the second week of August.
In order to help meet Apple’s production demands, Foxconn will hire 100,000 workers to ensure that it can manufacture enough iPhone 6 units to meet future demand.
Leave aside those bits that are irrelevant to my point, whether the iPhone 6 will have a 5.5 inch screen, whether it will even be called the iPhone 6, and concentrate on that figure of 100,000 workers. There is simply no way at all that it would be possible to hire 100,000 workers in the US in any one, or even in several, locations between now and the supposed launch of the phone in two month’s time.
Sources: forbes.com
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