Why not build an iPhone in the USA?

Apple put out the kind of press release companies dream of this week. 

It plans to spend $30 billion in the U.S. on new data centers and other facilities, create 20,000 new jobs, build a new corporate campus and spend money on educating the next generation as well. 

What's not to like, right? The naysayers would point to a few things, including the location where it makes the products that account for most of its profits — iPhones. 

The best-selling consumer device in the United States is designed in Cupertino, Calif. and manufactured primarily 6,500 miles away in Shenzhen, China at the Foxconn facilities. It has no plans to change that. 

Instead, Apple's new campus will initially bring on extra tech support folks. That's all well and good, but isn't it time to bring production back here as well? A good part of Donald Trump's successful White House campaign in 2016 was based on promises to bring back manufacturing jobs to America. Love him or hate him, many would agree that we'd rather have products made here than elsewhere. So if we can still make cars and appliances here, why not a smartphone?

Because the phone would cost as much as double, in the $2,000 range for the iPhone X, says tech analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies. And he cites other reasons as well, notably the cost of skilled labor in China (who are paid around $100 a week, he notes, way less than we offer,) the availability of parts in Asia and the lack of suitable manufacturing facilities here, which would cost Apple millions of dollars to build. 

“It could be done, at a huge cost, not just to Apple, but to you and me as well,” says Bajarin. The bottom line: “We lost manufacturing to Asia, Southeast Asia, India and Mexico two to three decades ago, and it’s never coming back.”

Beyond Apple, Samsung creates many of its Galaxy phones in South Korea and manufactures them there, as well as Vietnam and India, while Amazon churns out those Echo and Dot speakers in China, and Japan based Nintendo makes the popular Switch video game system in Asia as well.  

I know all the reasons for why Apple would choose not to make an iPhone here, but that doesn't stop me from saying, try it. If Apple wanted to shift some production here, open an Apple University to train workers to be as nimble and learned as the Chinese, it could. After all, we're talking about the world's most profitable, and some would argue, innovative company. 

The company could offer a special, more expensive, "Made in the U.S.A." edition of the iPhone (in red, white and blue colors, perhaps) and I'm betting people would buy it. Maybe not with the kinds of numbers seen with the cheaper version, but isn't it worth giving it a try, and perhaps, ahem, thinking differently? 

Readers, feel free to weigh in on the comments. I'd love to hear what you have to say. And speaking of listening, if you'd like to check out the audio version of today's piece, just click here to listen to #TalkingTech on Stitcher. 

Meanwhile, in other tech news this week

YouTube's rules change — The video network announced stricter rules for video creators hoping to be compensated for their work, another reaction to criticism that it encourages increasingly dangerous and exploitive videos by enabling their creators to make money off viral clips. Before, creators needed 10,000 views of their videos in order to quality for a split of the ad revenues; now it's 4,000 hours of video views within 12 months, which for many small creators is a big hurdle to surpass. 

Google Arts and Culture — Google's guide to museums and fine art has been out for over two years, but it wasn't until January that it zoomed to the top of the app download charts. Thanks to a new update in December allowing anyone to shoot a selfie and compare it to a great piece of art, celebrities picked up on it, started sharing, and word spread quickly. To find the selfie feature, you need to scroll down midway through the app. 

Nintendo Switch — A new accessory kit for the popular Nintendo Switch videogame system lets players build physical, cardboard add-ons for games. The first option, called the "Variety Kit," comes with software to connect the accessories to the game, plus the cardboard, rubber bands, and string necessary to build a fishing rod, motorbike, piano (with functioning keys), a house and remote-controlled cars. Both packages will be available on April 20, with the variety pack available for $69.99 and the robot pack retailing for $79.99.

A week of Talking Tech podcasts

Backup your computer before you pour tea over it. Inspired by a real-life incident near the Talking Tech garage, we offer, once again, backup tips for those who haven't gotten around to it—before you dump liquid all over your laptop. 

The iPhone, Fire stick and Pixel born from children of immigrants. Amidst all the chat about immigration, did you realize that the iPhone, Kindle and Chromecast all stem from the offspring of immigrants? 

More backup tips — how to copy Word files to Google Drive. When the reporter's mother listens to the first backup podcast and says, "Wait a minute--how exactly do I get Word files into Google Docs," and Google's instructions are wanting, you know it's time for a backup sequel. 

Have you taken your Google Art Selfie yet?. Our audio musing on the hottest app of 2018, the one that first came out in 2015. 

Apple's hiring binge. Apple wants to bring on 200,000 new hires, and we say great — but how about starting by beefing up the Mac Geniuses at Apple Stores, where repair appointments are quite hard to come by. 

Spending $100 million a day on apps. That's the stat in a new study. How's that possible on phones dominated by free apps like Facebook, Waze and Twitter? One word: games. 

Why not make an iPhone in the USA? Our audio version of today's newsletter. 

The case of the stolen laptop, found on eBay. The laptop that got lifted from a New York apartment, found its way to a local pawnshop, and then got re-sold on eBay. How to protect your investment, deal with eBay and lock up your laptop so no thief would be able to use it. 

Subscribe to the Talking Tech newsletter via this link, look for me on Twitter (@jeffersongraham) and Facebook and if you haven't checked out the daily #TalkingTech podcast yet, now's the time. You can listen on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to online audio.