Korean Media: Manufacturing Smartphones in the United States? Not That Easy!
On July 18, the South Korean media outlet "Today's Finance" published an article stating that President Donald Trump has been pressuring major smartphone manufacturers to produce their products in the United States. The Trump family's company announced that it will launch a smartphone made in the United States in September. Experts said that while it is not impossible to manufacture smartphones in the United States, making them feature-rich and affordable is no easy task.
According to the "Wall Street Journal," among the smartphones currently produced and sold in the United States, one is the "Liberty Phone" developed by Purism. The Liberty Phone is priced at $1999, but its specifications are not as good as Apple's iPhone or Samsung Electronics' Galaxy smartphones. The "Wall Street Journal" commented, "If it were ten years ago, the configuration of this product would have been impressive."
Todd Weaver, founder of Purism, said, "In the past decade, we have tried our best to produce in the United States. There are still some components for which the supply chain has not been established in the United States, and we will work hard until we achieve this goal."
Weaver claimed that they can produce about 10,000 units of the Liberty phone per month, but so far the total sales have not reached 100,000 units. According to data from market research company Canalys, Apple alone shipped approximately 225 million iPhones last year.
The motherboard of the Liberty phone is produced internally by the company. The chip was originally designed for cars and is manufactured at a factory in Austin, Texas, owned by the Dutch semiconductor company NXP. This smartphone is assembled at Purism's factory in California, with some components imported from China and other Asian countries. The display and battery come from China, and the rear camera comes from South Korea.
Weaver admitted that the lack of American infrastructure limits the development of fully American-made smartphones. For example, there is no large-scale smartphone display manufacturer in the United States.
The Liberty phone uses Purism's own operating system, PureOS, rather than Android or iOS. It offers only basic function applications such as calls, text messages, web browsing, and calculators.
Trump threatened to impose high tariffs on foreign smartphones, demanding companies like Apple and Samsung to produce smartphones in the United States. He particularly criticized Apple CEO Tim Cook over the company's move to shift production from China to India.
Meanwhile, the Trump family's company recently announced that it will launch a smartphone called T1, priced at $499, and claims that the product is made in the United States.
However, experts say that producing the Trump phone in the United States will be very difficult given its specifications. They also agree that it is currently impossible to match the production quality and scale of Asia.
Jeff Fieldhack, director of research at market research company Counterpoint Research, said, "Even with lower specifications, it would take several years to source all components from the United States, which is not realistic. In addition to cost, the United States has no factories to produce application processors (AP), high-end displays, and most other key components."
The "Wall Street Journal" stated, "The Liberty phone best reflects the reality of American manufacturing, clearly showing why big companies like Apple do not produce high-end smartphones in the United States."
Weaver said that the production cost of the Liberty phone is approximately $650. According to data from technology research company TechInsights, the production cost of the more powerful iPhone 16 Pro Max in China was approximately $550 as of last autumn.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1837957321174032/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.