You can’t stand out in the thin air. The factory does not exist, the production equipment needed has not been built yet, the land to be purchased or even determined to be placed in the factory, the infrastructure around these sites has not been upgraded to deal with the inevitable traffic, so employees have not been recruited or trained, and Apple’s production partners need to be persuaded to deploy it to the United States.
The company also needs to build a logistics system to import parts and precious metals that are not or cannot be provided by the United States. (Yes, recycling and recycling manufacturing systems will help.)
How long does these questions take?
We understand how long it takes for Apple to just calculate the length of time it took for it to transfer 20% of its iPhone manufacturing to India. It has taken a decade to build production capacity to reach this point, and while iPhone manufacturing partners are rapidly expanding this, the barriers to completely replacing China in the manufacturing chain remain.
