14 DAY TRIAL // Allegations that Apple is planning to craft out its own hardware casings out of aluminum bricks have spawned speculation saying the process is not quite feasible. Experts weighing in on the matter have divided opinions, raising even more questions.
As reported before, a BusinessWeek piece has one analyst quoted as saying Apple would be clever to start in-house manufacturing. Kevin Keller of iSupply claims this would be a real money saver in time. Initially, though, Apple would have to make some sacrifices, as far as profits are concerned, the analyst says. "If you're working with one single unit of metal, you're reducing a lot of the materials costs and also a lot of labor time on assembly," Keller stresses.
Earlier this week, Computerworld's Seth Weintraub claimed that what Apple (internally) referred to as “Brick” was actually a manufacturing process for the case of a new product. According to the rumor, this is a “totally revolutionary” manufacturing process that uses lasers beams and jets of water to hollow out laptop cases out of blocks of aluminum. If this turns out to be the “case,” the results could "be unlike anything else on the market in appearance and design," says Keller, as screws and seams would become a thing of the past. However, it's unclear how Apple would scale down this process for laptop production.
Contrary to Keller's beliefs, Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities in Portland thinks Apple would be downright crazy to invest in its own production facilities. He believes Apple assembling its own notebooks is a very expensive and risky move, while all these claims aren't even backed up by any sort of evidence.
"I'd be shocked if they started doing any of their own assembly," Andy Hargreaves says. "That's the kind of drastic step that would hurt profits. I'm just not sure what the advantages would be."
Adam Richardson, an industrial designer, is also quoted as dismissing claims that Apple is already using laser & water-jet manufacturing methods. The process, Richardson notes, would be very expensive for a notebook-sized device, while reckoning it's "unlikely that it will literally be a hollowed out block of aluminum". Apple, of course, doesn't comment on rumors – ever – and times like these are no different.
What's your impression on this? Do you think Apple is aiming to control more of the manufacturing process of its devices, or would a process as the one described above really pose a risk to profits?