Following Tim Cook's confirmation of Apple shifting Mac production back into the United States, Hewlett-Packard has responded to its competitor's move.
In addition to pointing out that itself and Compaq have been manufacturing PCs since its inception, the firm stressed that it's already ahead of Apple in the race to bring more computer assembly back to the region. "Lots of noise...about Apple moving Mac production back to the U.S.... [We] wanted to offer HP's story," it said.
"HP PCs have been assembled in the U.S. since the beginning," the company said. "HP workstations and commercial desktop PCs are manufactured in Indianapolis, and HP servers are manufactured in Houston. These manufacturing facilities employ hundreds of people and produce billions of dollars' worth of products."
HP added that out of the PCs sold in the U.S., more than a third of business desktop PCs and all workstation PCs are assembled in America. It added that it'll assemble 2.9 million PCs in the region this year.
"There's a significant amount of customization...it's a higher value product than we might do in Asia. A higher level of customers that need build-to-order and close proximity," Tony Prophet, senior vice president of operations at HP, told CNET.
"We find that we are better able to serve our customers when we're closer, versus building them in China and shipping them by sea. The labor arbitrage is not really a driving factor," he added, referring to desktop production in North America and Europe. "We're marginally moving even some consumer PC [assembly] back to North America. Doing less of that in China."
Apple CEO Tim Cook had said that factories based in the U.S. will handle "some" of the Mac production that's currently being carried out in regions outside America.
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HP, however, stressed that its production in the U.S. isn't limited to just personal computers. Printing components are made in Corvallis, Oregon and San Diego, California.
Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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dark_knight33 This shouldn't be news, it should be the STANDARD of business for american companies. It's like Banks announcing that they no longer intend to rob you... As if that is some innovation, rather than correcting a decades long mistake.Reply -
COLGeek So what is the big deal? Just seems odd that HP has to proclaim "me, too" or "we did it first". Doesn't speak well for their relevance.Reply
Good for HP. Good for Apple. Good for the ol' USA!
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Camikazi COLGeekSo what is the big deal? Just seems odd that HP has to proclaim "me, too" or "we did it first". Doesn't speak well for their relevance.Good for HP. Good for Apple. Good for the ol' USA!It could just be their way of saying that what Apple is doing is not new or special at all cause a lot of places seem to think it is for some reason.Reply -
larkspur I've assembled all of my PCs in the USA too. Does that mean I'm special and get a cookie?Reply -
mcd023 the problem is that I always have issues with hp lappy's. don't know why, but the power ports aren't that great and I find that IT type support for them is a bit of a pain. ASUS, however, I like :P.Reply -
kawininjazx It's the biggest scam there is, "assembled in the US" but "built" in Asia. If Apple told people how many hundreds of millions if not billions they save on taxes by making their parts out of the US, people wouldn't be so gun-ho about them. To be fair all technology is being made out of the US, but it would be nice if they could bring it here, I'm sure many of the millions of people out of work would rather work minimum wage 60 hours a week making iPads then not making any money.Reply -
remc86007 If country A designs and sells goods and, despite higher cost, moves manufacturing from country B back to country A; in the long run, will not country C design equivalents and utilize the cheaper manufacturing of country B and push country A completely out of the market?Reply
Seems like basic economics, or am I missing something? -
samwelaye kawininjazxI'm sure many of the millions of people out of work would rather work minimum wage 60 hours a week making iPads then not making any money.Reply
You really think so? I'd give it 6 months and there would be an "electronic assemblers labor union" and they'd screw the companies over until they move back to China... No way any large amount of americans would work 60 hours/week of minimum wage. -
alidan dark_knight33This shouldn't be news, it should be the STANDARD of business for american companies. It's like Banks announcing that they no longer intend to rob you... As if that is some innovation, rather than correcting a decades long mistake.Reply
no, with big brand computers like this, id rather them be made overseas, at least that way when they crap out enmass it looks like it was crappy asian parts, appose to crappy america manufacturing when they break due to the asinine cost cutting decisions in the psu and motherboard.