Macs are bigger in Texas... Apple will not move Mac Pro desktop production to China, like it had reportedly been planning to. It's another "supporting America" move that Apple's PR team loved announcing. But this one has a scent of trade war diplomacy that investors were into — Apple stock rose almost a half percent on the decision.
Keep Austin weird and wired... Your Mac Pro smell like brisket? It's one of the few Apple products not assembled in China — it's made in Austin, TX since 2013. But this past summer, that almost changed:
- President Trump's new tariffs made Chinese parts used in the Mac Pro more expensive to import to the Texas assembly line.
- So Apple was reportedly thinking of moving the whole production out of Texas to China — the opposite of what Trump wanted.
- Then last week, the Trump Admin exempted 10 Apple parts that would've been hit with tariffs — so Apple agreed to stay after all.
The transactional states of America... The new tariffs would've cost Apple $$$ (American companies that buy Chinese stuff pay for tariffs, and often try to pass that on to you and us by raising prices). Instead, Apple essentially threatened to move jobs outside the US. Then it got the tariffs waived by the Administration. This is the nature in which companies and countries handle relations with President Trump, and vice versa.