iFixit’s photo of the back of the new iMac in its teardown shows the line “Designed in California. Assembled in USA,” as opposed to “Made in China.” This is interesting because Apple has closed all of its production facilities located in the US, in places such as Elk Grove and Fremont, California, and Fountain, Colorado.
While Apple products are designed in California, they have not been manufactured in the States for a while now. It has also been confirmed that earlier generations of the iMac have come in boxes that also have “Assembled in USA” printed on the side.
However, many standard configuration iMac assemblies are still reported to have been performed in China, which lets us know that while this is an interesting development, it doesn’t mark any significant change in manufacturing strategy from the Cupertino company.
So if it isn’t just a typo, some are speculating that Apple is doing an early manufacturing run of the new iMacs to get the “kinks out” before the process goes to Foxconn in China and their other partners. Apple might also be trying to ease demands of production in the East by relying on American assembly lines.
Image Credit: Gizmodo
