Why Apple got a ‘Made in USA’ bug

Quentin Hardy

Apple’s decision to make some of its computers in the United States may be a positive for American jobs. It is certainly a marker of where much of the global computer industry has gone.

Today, rising energy prices and a global market for computers are changing the way companies make their machines. Hewlett-Packard, which turns out over 50 million computers a year through its own plants and subcontractors, makes many of its larger desktop personal computers in such higher-cost areas as Indianapolis and Tokyo to save on fuel costs and to serve business buyers rapidly. “It’s important that they get an order in five days, and there is a pride for the local consumer to see a sticker that says ‘Made in Tokyo,’” says Tony Prophet, senior vice president of operations for HP’s PCs and printers. Five years ago, he says, HP supplied most of Europe’s desktops from China, but today it manufactures in the Czech Republic, Turkey and Russia instead.

HP sells those kinds of computers particularly to business customers. The Macs that Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, talked about making in the United States are likewise large machines, though it is not clear if Apple is doing so to pursue more enterprise business. The iPhones and iPads will still apparently be made in China.

If Cook is bringing his computer assembly back to the United States, it will

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