New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Resubscribe Now Close

Speculation Targets Mac Pro as First "Made in USA" Mac Product

Sunday December 9, 2012 5:42 pm PST by Juli Clover
During his interview with Brian Williams, Tim Cook revealed that Apple is planning on bringing some of its Mac production back to the United States. Cook did not reveal which of the Mac lines would be part of the $100 million investment, but speculation has named the Mac Pro as the likely suspect.

Fortune has rounded up all of the current thoughts on why the Mac Pro is the only viable candidate:
-A $100 million factory, Dan Luria, a labor economist at Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center told Bloomberg, employs about 200 people and produces about 1 million units per year

-Last year, Apple sold 18 million Macs, including 13.5 million MacBooks and 4.6 million desktops (iMacs, minis and Mac Pros). Only the Mac Pro and mini sell fewer than 1 million per year, and the Mac Pro is considerably heavier and more expensive to ship

-Apple, through a spokesperson and through Tim Cook himself, has already indicated that it will be producing a new Mac Pro in 2013

-Any extra labor costs associated with manufacturing in the U.S. can be more easily absorbed by a $2,500-$3,800 Mac Pro than by a MacBook or an iMac that sell for $1,000 to $1,300.

-Mac Pros are easier to build and customize than any other Apple product
Earlier this year, after a minor update to the Mac Pro was announced at WWDC, Tim Cook confirmed to a fan that new Mac Pros were coming in 2013, which was later reiterated by an Apple spokesman. The 2013 Mac Pro could be the first to carry the "Made in the USA" label, if current speculation is correct.

Related Roundup: Mac Pro
Buyer's Guide: Mac Pro (Don't Buy)
[ 241 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
Asclepio
82 months ago
from $11,499.00
Rating: 38 Votes
Avatar
oneMadRssn
82 months ago
Think it'll have no optical drive, proprietary SSD, a mobile CPU, and soldered in RAM?
Rating: 23 Votes
Avatar
WRP
82 months ago

We can only hope the mac pro is updated soon; I built a hackintosh since a new iMac just won't float my boat and the current mac pro is too slow. Let's hope others can benefit from a modern pro machine from apple.


What do you do for a living that a 12-core machine is too slow? I'm claiming *************
Rating: 15 Votes
Avatar
ppdix
82 months ago
The REAL Pro Mac...

I laugh when I see the Mac Book Pro's benchmarks which are like 25% of the power I get on my 2010 Mac Pro.
I got 2 LED Cinema Displays, 1TB Mercury Accelsior PCI-e SSD Drive that gives me 700MB/second Read speeds, plus 6 additional Internal HD's, PCI-e USB 3.0, FireWire 800 and 32GB of RAM. Oh yeah, I removed the CD drive and hooked up a 480GB SSD instead.
Try to upgrade an iMac or Mac Book...
Mac Pro is the only REAL Professional Mac. The rest are toys... ;)
Rating: 14 Votes
Avatar
Skika
82 months ago

Yeah, Apple! Manufacturer your most least-selling product in the same country that your HQ is located in! Entirely ethical.


Huh, what?
Rating: 13 Votes
Avatar
faroZ06
82 months ago
"-Mac Pros are easier to build and customize than any other Apple product"

Giving Americans the easy job, eh? Racist!
jk
Rating: 10 Votes
Avatar
Mars478
82 months ago
Weren't iMacs already being built in the USA?
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
faroZ06
82 months ago

Does this mean that they are going to update it?


This means that they aren't going to update it until the plants are finished. :(
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
Battlefield Fan
82 months ago
Guess they found a way to make the Mac Pro 100% with robots. The 200 jobs that are being created are for robot technicians.;):rolleyes:
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
haruhiko
82 months ago

I laugh when I see the Mac Book Pro's benchmarks which are like 25% of the power I get on my 2010 Mac Pro.
I got 2 LED Cinema Displays, 1TB Mercury Accelsior PCI-e SSD Drive that gives me 700MB/second Read speeds, plus 6 additional Internal HD's, PCI-e USB 3.0, FireWire 800 and 32GB of RAM. Oh yeah, I removed the CD drive and hooked up a 480GB SSD instead.
Try to upgrade an iMac or Mac Book...
Mac Pro is the only REAL Professional Mac. The rest are toys... ;)

====

Yeah? I'm so jealous...
You love paying double for hard drives and $50 to get 20% more speed? I don't...
I got PCI-express and a 700MB/S Internal Hard Drive. No thunderbolt HD can get even close...
Cheers, baby


SSD = Solid State Drive
SSD Drive = Solid State Drive Drive
SSD Hard Drive = Solid State Drive Hard Drive
see?
Rating: 7 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]