Trump's New Plan for a US-Made iPhone: Something, Something AI
Annie Palmer
Let's check in on how things are going with Apple and the Trump administration:
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro criticized Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday over the company’s response to pressure from the Trump administration to make more of its products outside China.
“Going back to the first Trump term, Tim Cook has continually asked for more time in order to move his factories out of China,” Navarro said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “I mean it’s the longest-running soap opera in Silicon Valley.”
So not good then.
On one hand, it's sort of wild that the administration has zeroed in on Apple here given not only all of Cook's legwork over many years now to get into the President's good graces, but also because the entire idea of manufacturing the iPhone in the US is just pure crazytown fantasy. Even if it were possible for Apple move such manufacturing, it would take years to get all the pieces up and running. And it would all-but destroy Apple's business as we know it today because it would destroy the economics of their most-important device.
On the other hand, the iPhone is not only Apple's most-important device, it's arguably the pinnacle of technology devices and it is the product of an American company, so of course Trump's team is going to focus on it given the agenda here. Cook clearly thought he could win the day, and the argument, by making rational points about the realities of such manufacturing in our current world.1 But then his mistake was in trying to be rational in any way. Trump needs talking points and things that look like "wins" even if they're not and/or never come to pass.
It's not that complicated. Cook should just say they're going to move iPhone manufacturing to the US – and then never actually follow through with it. Sure, this takes some amount of soul-selling to do, but honestly, we're past that point already. How many other companies have promised things to give the President a good soundbite that simply are not going to happen? Undoubtedly a lot.
Oh but our current world is changing, Navarro has apparently heard:
With all these new advanced manufacturing techniques and the way things are moving with AI and things like that, it’s inconceivable to me that Tim Cook could not produce his iPhones elsewhere around the world and in this country.
Ah yes, AI will solve this. Tim Cook should just take Apple's entire logistics operation and run it by a chatbot to see what it says. But preferably not Siri.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 Something you'd think might resonate with the President's team given their own efforts to build an American-made smartphone. Which may have to hold off on the "America" part.