Apple is in the process of relocating Apple Watch and Mac production to the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam as part of a broader push to diversify its supply chain, Nikkei Asiareports.
The report says that Apple's supplier Luxshare has begun trial production of Apple Watch and MacBook models in Vietnam. Vietnam is already the home for production of several Apple productions, including certain iPad and AirPods models.
Alongside Apple Watch and MacBook production possibly moving to Vietnam, the report says that Apple is also mulling potentially moving HomePod production to the country. The report noted that Apple's trial production of MacBooks in Vietnam is progressing slowly due to pandemic-related disruptions.
Friday September 4, 2026 3:08 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple last month only managed to produce "a few hundred units a day" of its upcoming foldable iPhone because of the company's extremely high quality control standards, according to Nikkei Asia ($), citing supply chain sources.
From today's report:
"Production is ramping up slowly, with output currently at only a few hundred units a day in late August. That initial volume could be...
Apple today announced a new Apple Education Center in Hanoi to expand training and skill development programs for employees across its supply chain in Vietnam.
The new center is the first of its kind in the country and will begin offering courses this fall, operating in partnership with Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST). Apple and its partners already run almost 20...
Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event that it will be releasing iOS 27 sometime tomorrow – Monday, September 14.
iOS 27 won't be the only release on...
A win for Vietnam is a loss for China, which makes this doubly-good news.
And ultimately a loss for the USA. We need to bring manufacturing back stateside. The "but the devices will cost 100x more" excuse has long term consequences for US sovereignty and economic stability. Additionally that point is addressable via legislation. China are strong because of their manufacturing ability which is rapidly growing. Meanwhile the US's manufacturing ability is crumbling.
I want my Apple devices "Designed in California and Made in USA."
You are correct on China's manufacturing capabilities are far far ahead of any other country, let alone USA. That is not because of manufacturing equipment, but the ecosystem and the specialists/experts that are locally available.
To the decree of China's experts in the specialised fields, there are not many countries that offer a similar concentration of people, including US and EU.
Specialists and experts that do not or cannot exist in the USA? How do you think the specialists and experts in China came to be? There is nothing inherent about the Chinese people that make them better at manufacturing. There is not much China can do that the USA cannot from a technical point of view, it's just a matter of where we choose to invest in manufacturing. Population is a factor of course but somewhat irrelevant. USA manufacturing was moved to China because of cost as the companies here wanted to extract more profit at the cost of long term national economic stability. That's not a "cost issue" that's a greed issue. China don't think like we do, they don't optimize for short term economic gain, they optimize for long term stability. We have much to learn from China.
