Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in... Vietnam?

By now most of us are familiar with the fact that (most) Apple products are assembled in China. Well, this could very well change in the foreseeable future. Reports suggest that Apple is expanding production diversification in Vietnam. The American tech giant will start making Apple Watches and MacBooks there for the first time.

This information was first brought forward by NikkeiAsia. It has since been covered by 9to5Mac in a dedicated article. It should be noted that such a move from Apple is in no way surprising and many analyst have been predicting it for quite some time.

Rising geopolitical tensions and increasing market volatility make China a less-than-ideal venue for the final assembly of Apple products. This coupled with the recent turn for the worse in China-US relations in the aftermath of the visit of Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the United States House of Representatives) in Taiwan could have been the last push Apple needed to take action.

Given the new status quo in international relations in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a certain degree of de-globalization is to be expected. This spells trouble for companies like Apple that depend on swift supply chains in order to manufacture and sell their products.

For reference, Apple has just shifted iPhone production to India, with the iPhone 14 lineup. Additionally, the Cupertino company is already manufacturing its AirPods in Vietnam since 2020. The newest iPads have also recently entered mass production - in Taiwan. Apple’s production diversification is thus steady…. albeit a bit slow.

At any rate, China will continue to play an important role in Apple’s supply chain, at least in the immediate future. The question is whether Apple will find a way to limit its dependency. For now, the answer seems like a “yes”.