Not that long ago, these three words - 'Made in USA' - stood out for American quality, craftsmanship and reliability. What a difference a few decades make! As everyone's been building virtually everything in China, small wonder even Apple's boss Tim Cook, like his predecessor Steve Jobs, suspects those manufacturing jobs won't be coming back anytime soon. What might is (some) assembly work.
It was only recently that the nation's tech brands began experimenting with doing final assembly domestically. Motorola, for example, is putting the final pieces of the Moto X in place at a Texas plant, previously a Nokia facility.
Apple, in the meantime, has always designed its products in California and tapped its vast network of suppliers and contract manufacturers in Taiwan and China to build its gizmos. That's starting to change now as Apple's next-generation Mac Pro marks the company's return to the US in a limited manufacturing capacity.
The upcoming dream desktop is being assembled in a $100 million U.S. plant. And like Motorola's, Apple's facility is located in Texas. So, how does Apple build such a sophisticated and radically rethought desktop computer? Industrial designer Greg Koenig took a closer look at an eye-candy Mac Pro assembly video Apple played at yesterday's keynote, here's what he gleaned from it...
