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Apple is expected to continue shifting some manufacturing activities outside China for its key product lines. And the production of MacBook is reportedly the next to be moved, at least partially, starting next year.
The Cupertino, a California-based tech giant, has asked its leading manufacturing partner Foxconn to shift some of the MacBook production to Vietnam by May 2023, Nikkei Asia reports. Apple has been working on moving some of the MacBook productions outside China for almost two years. But it took more time because of the complexity of the laptop supply chain.
The move of some MacBook production is also an important development to Apple’s plans to diversify its manufacturing sites. MacBook is the only remaining flagship product line that is still exclusively being manufactured in China. "After the MacBook production shifts, all of Apple's flagship products basically will have one more production location beyond China ... iPhones in India and MacBooks, the Apple Watch and iPads in Vietnam," a source of the publication said.
Apple’s production challenges have been attributed to the rising tension between China and the United States that escalated during the Trump administration. In recent months, the manufacturing of Apple products in China was also hit by the country’s zero-COVID policies.
The company issued a rare warning last month, telling customers that the iPhone 14 Pro supply is expected to be limited during the holiday. One of the reasons Apple cited was the temporary closure of the Foxconn Zhengzhou site due to a COVID-19 lockdown.
Vietnam has been a top choice for Apple in its ongoing plans to diversify manufacturing sites for its flagship products. The AirPods were the first to move to the country starting in 2020. Reports earlier this year suggested that some Apple Watch production is moving to Vietnam. Apple has also started manufacturing iPads in Vietnam and is expected to establish more iPhone production lines in India by 2025.
A recent report from Bloomberg also said even some of the high-end Macs could be produced in Vietnam. The next Mac Pro, which would complete Apple’s shift from Intel to its in-house chips, is reportedly in its advanced stage of development. It is rumored to include a more powerful version of the M2 chip.
