Speculation Targets Mac Pro as First "Made in USA" Mac Product

macproDuring his interview with Brian Williams, Tim Cook revealed that Apple is planning on bringing some of its Mac production back to the United States. Cook did not reveal which of the Mac lines would be part of the $100 million investment, but speculation has named the Mac Pro as the likely suspect.

Fortune has rounded up all of the current thoughts on why the Mac Pro is the only viable candidate:

-A $100 million factory, Dan Luria, a labor economist at Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center told Bloomberg, employs about 200 people and produces about 1 million units per year

-Last year, Apple sold 18 million Macs, including 13.5 million MacBooks and 4.6 million desktops (iMacs, minis and Mac Pros). Only the Mac Pro and mini sell fewer than 1 million per year, and the Mac Pro is considerably heavier and more expensive to ship

-Apple, through a spokesperson and through Tim Cook himself, has already indicated that it will be producing a new Mac Pro in 2013

-Any extra labor costs associated with manufacturing in the U.S. can be more easily absorbed by a $2,500-$3,800 Mac Pro than by a MacBook or an iMac that sell for $1,000 to $1,300.

-Mac Pros are easier to build and customize than any other Apple product

Earlier this year, after a minor update to the Mac Pro was announced at WWDC, Tim Cook confirmed to a fan that new Mac Pros were coming in 2013, which was later reiterated by an Apple spokesman. The 2013 Mac Pro could be the first to carry the "Made in the USA" label, if current speculation is correct.

Related Roundup: Mac Pro
Buyer's Guide: Mac Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Mac Pro

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Top Rated Comments

Asclepio Avatar
170 months ago
from $11,499.00
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
170 months ago
Think it'll have no optical drive, proprietary SSD, a mobile CPU, and soldered in RAM?
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WRP Avatar
170 months ago
We can only hope the mac pro is updated soon; I built a hackintosh since a new iMac just won't float my boat and the current mac pro is too slow. Let's hope others can benefit from a modern pro machine from apple.

What do you do for a living that a 12-core machine is too slow? I'm claiming *************
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ppdix Avatar
170 months ago
The REAL Pro Mac...

I laugh when I see the Mac Book Pro's benchmarks which are like 25% of the power I get on my 2010 Mac Pro.
I got 2 LED Cinema Displays, 1TB Mercury Accelsior PCI-e SSD Drive that gives me 700MB/second Read speeds, plus 6 additional Internal HD's, PCI-e USB 3.0, FireWire 800 and 32GB of RAM. Oh yeah, I removed the CD drive and hooked up a 480GB SSD instead.
Try to upgrade an iMac or Mac Book...
Mac Pro is the only REAL Professional Mac. The rest are toys... ;)
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Skika Avatar
170 months ago
Yeah, Apple! Manufacturer your most least-selling product in the same country that your HQ is located in! Entirely ethical.

Huh, what?
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
faroZ06 Avatar
170 months ago
"-Mac Pros are easier to build and customize than any other Apple product"

Giving Americans the easy job, eh? Racist!
jk
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)