Infographic: Is American Manufacturing Dying Or Specialising?

70 million iPhones were sold in 2011 and not one of them was made in the USA. Why does Apple prefer to keep their production offshore? Contrary to popular belief, the top reason for outsourcing is the productivity gains achieved, followed by cost savings. Did you know that it only takes 15 days to hire 8, 700 engineers in China to manage 200,000 factory workers, while in the U.S. the process could go for as long as nine months?

70 million iPhones were sold in 2011 and not one of them was made in the USA. Why does Apple prefer to keep their production offshore? Contrary to popular belief, the top reason for outsourcing is the productivity gains achieved, followed by cost savings. Did you know that it only takes 15 days to hire 8, 700 engineers in China to manage 200,000 factory workers, while in the U.S. the process could go for as long as nine months?

In the Q3 earnings call, Apple reported that 31.2 million iPhones were sold in that quarter. This was a quarterly record for Apple, compared with 26 million iPhones sold last year. The company’s flagship product still has firm believers worldwide. That’s not the whole story, however, because incredible as it may seem iPhone 5 sales figures in the last three quarters were lower than what Wall Street expected, causing massive fluctuations in the value of Apple’s shares in the stock market.

In the wake of rumours that Apple is set to abandon its one-size-fits-all design policy and release a budget iPhone and iPhones with larger screens, where does this leave its current standard bearer? Apple has also started “reshoring” production of some of its products (but not iPhones, yet) back to the United States. Will this move eventually change the big picture that follows?

via financesonline.com