14 DAY TRIAL // A strange label on the latest-generation iMac torn down by iFixit seemingly indicates that Apple is assembling at least some units in the United States. The company was previously thought to have shut down all its US assembly plants.
In partnering with Foxconn years ago, Apple was able to reduce a lot of the costs associated with product assembly. In doing so, it also eliminated a lot of job opportunities for the United States, a matter raised by politicians time and time again this year.
The issue was actually a specific topic of discussion between President Barack Obama and the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.
Apple could be bringing some of those jobs back into the United States as at least some iMac computers are now being assembled in the country.
Or so suggests a label that reads “Assembled in USA” on the back of the iMac whose guts were spilled out in the name of science this weekend.
9to5mac’s Seth Weintraub did a little digging up to see what the US Federal Trade Commission states about “Assembled in the USA.”
According to the FTC, “A product that includes foreign components may be called ‘Assembled in USA’ without qualification when its principal assembly takes place in the U.S. and the assembly is substantial.”
“For the ‘assembly’ claim to be valid, the product’s last ‘substantial transformation’ also should have occurred in the U.S. That’s why a ‘screwdriver’ assembly in the U.S. of foreign components into a final product at the end of the manufacturing process doesn’t usually qualify for the ‘Assembled in USA’ claim.”
The FTC even offers an example stating that a lawn mower made of 15 to 20 percent “foreign content” but put together in the States can deserve the “Assembled in USA” moniker.
The regulator further includes an example that applies specifically to computers.