Motorola And Apple Look To Texas For Made In U.S.A. Tech

Pop quiz: What was the last smartphone to be built in the United State of America?

If you gave any answer other than “none,” you’re wrong.

Back at the start of 2012, the New York Times detailed why so much tech manufacturing is based out of China, which basically boils down to infrastructure. Odds are that any manufacturer will order component parts made down the street, thus reducing costs. To make these mass-produced tech products in the U.S.A., manufacturers insisted that it would add too much overhead in time and money. One year later though and two of the biggest tech companies in the world have shifted position, philosophically and globally.

Shift a bit further and he’ll teabag Canada.
[Source CBS Marketing]

When President Obama asked Apple what it would take for the company to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., the late CEO Steve Jobs is quoted as replying, “Those jobs aren’t coming back.” It appears this was one of the Jobsian predictions that has proven to be false, like the insistence that Apple would never do a 7″ tablet. As of mid-May, current CEO Tim Cook promised a line of “locally grown” Apples, made in the Great State of Texas. There’s no word on what specific product line is being moved or how cost will be impacted.

Five bucks says it’s Apple’s Hobby”

Meanwhile, the Google-owned Motorola is building the Moto X, the first device to come from the company post-absorption that wasn’t already in the pipeline. Shockingly, the X will be the first smartphone built on U.S. soil and will create 2,000 jobs. Impressively, the X is expected out sometime this summer, which implies that the new plant in Fort Worth (pictured above) is ready to go.

With the shift of tech manufacturing to Texas, a state with less regulation than most and incentives for businesses, could we be seeing the start of a U.S. version of China’s Shinzen district?