Tim Cook Visits Mac Pro Factory 'Loaded with American Manufacturing Expertise' in Austin [Updated]

Friday June 6, 2014 8:34 am PDT by Eric Slivka

While it was revealed yesterday that Apple executives Tim Cook and Eddy Cue had visited the company's new operations campus in Austin, Texas, Cook has just tweeted a photo of a second visit he made to Apple's nearby Mac Pro manufacturing facility.

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Watching the Mac Pro come together in Austin yesterday,thanks to a team loaded with American manufacturing expertise. pic.twitter.com/5LcCOFIVgC — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 6, 2014

Apple's Mac Pro manufacturing facility is run by Flextronics as part of an initiative to bring manufacturing of some Apple products back to the United States. While it is currently a limited effort given the relatively low volume of Mac Pro production, it has received considerable attention.

Flextronics' Mac Pro facility is roughly a mile from Apple's new Austin campus, which is actually an expansion of the company's long-standing operations campus in the city. The campus expansion is major effort that will see Apple investing $300 million to add at least 3,600 workers at the site by 2021. The overall project will encompass roughly one million square feet of space, with the just-opened first phase including two out of a planned six buildings on the site.

Following the visit to Apple's facilities in Austin yesterday, Cue was also spotted in the stands at last night's Game 1 of the NBA Finals just down the road in San Antonio.

Update 9:27 AM: Cook has also tweeted a photo of his (and Cue's) visit with the AppleCare team at the operations campus in Austin.

Our AppleCare team is the best in the world. Thrilled to see them in action yesterday on our new campus in Austin. pic.twitter.com/fTaMKzMi9o — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 6, 2014

Tag: Tim Cook

Top Rated Comments

big_malk

122 months ago

It really looks like those iMacs are running windows?

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Steve121178

You're post shows so much ignorance, Seriously. With that type of attitude things will remain the same. Is that what you want, to be monopolized by Microsoft? It's not like Macs are just a hobby. That's exactly what you're suggesting.
There's absolutely nothing about Windows in general that can only do that type of work. It's lazies that refused to create and consumers with your type of thinking that will keep everything the way it is. Very poor.

My post is just reality, backed up my the proof on those images. Apple has sourced the software they need to do the job and it runs on Windows. Why? Because the software they require on OS X simply doesn't exist.

Also, calm down. It's just software.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

madsci954

I tip my hat to that worker, I cannot work normally when someone is standing over me like that. Let alone the CEO lol.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

dBeats

"Made in USA":

Thrice as long to manufacture thrice the MSRP. :apple:

Thrice the salary for the workers, thrice the quality of life, thrice the quality, and thrice the average age of the workers.

Let's face it, having 12 year-olds work for 15¢ an hour near factories that spill toxic chemicals into rivers and spew toxic fumes into downwind major cities is not a sustainable way of doing things. Cheap, fast, good...pick two.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Exhale

Answer the question. You didn't even do that.

Being rich is not a financial motivation. Again; how would apple benefit from being forced to design their own software in an area they have no expertise in - when there is perfectly functional software that already exists which they simply need to license.

Not only that, they get workers and administrators that know how to manage those systems.

It may make more sense if they increase the scale of their operations. Right now however the scale is far too small.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Yvan256

There's a light gray bar at the top, so I'm guessing VMWare Fusion or Parallels. When you're talking about electronic hardware and testing equipment, a lot of it only has Windows software so it's not like they have a choice.

Also, can anyone spot anything that might look like a Mac mini on that photo?

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