MacBooks made in China?

It came to a big surprise to me when I heard that my MacBook pro was made in China. Mind you, it will be in within five days. Anyways, if that is the case, quality comes into mind. Is the MacBook pro have good quality?

 

to be honest... it shouldnt have come as a surprise to you ...
nearly every electronic component is in anycase made in and around China... most laptop manufacturers assemble customized laptops in E/SE Asia .... don't remember the last time I heard a major computer manufacturer assembling a major desktop/laptop series in the USA ... or for that matter Europe either.

Manufacturing / Assembling in China it may so be; but in general ... as for the components... don't worry... as for the assembling.. well... i havent been blown off my feet by customer service in the US ... don't see why assembling in China would be any more shady or offer less quality than an assembly here.

 

Most notebooks are made in eastern Asia. I would not worry about the build quality. Macbook Pro's tend to be very well made.

 

Yes its true. But at the same time its not like Apple's any different nowadays. Almost everyone makes their electronics in China now. I wouldn't worry about the build quality of it; not everything Made in China is bad quality.

 

Yep just remember it's about quality control. It really doesn't matter where it's made as long as there is good quality control. China does have some bad reputation mainly because their own products/brands are quite poorly made for a quick profit. Millions of items sold on eBay is a good example of this... But I wouldn't worry about Apple.

 

Well China has had a bad reputation because the American companies are the ones behind it. Why pay $10/hour for someone to put together some toys while you could hire 5 people for that same price in China? They want more profit, they want higher production. Hire 5 people for the same price of one in America. Get 5 computers made in the same time you make one in America. The company running the factory in China is the one to blame, not really China itself.

And once again this isn't just Apple.

 

Not to be racist, I would trust any products made in Europe or Asia over American made products. As an industrial engineer, I am fully aware of all the ****s and giggles, and how lazy peiple can be in us factories.

If any product has bad quality, i'd blame corporate instead of hard working Asian worker

 

Aren't all computers from China these days? It should not surprise you and you should not worry. At least not anymore than you would with any other company.

 

just don't lick your macbook pro. as tempting as it may be.

who knows what kind of paint is used.

just kidding.

enjoy it.

 

Rofl, I plan on it. Now I need to work on building my PC rig. Going to be nice overclocking cheap parts into speeds only thousands can buy!

 

There was a time when "made in Japan" was a synonym with crap quality. The same happened with China. By the time I built my 3rd desktop, there was still some prejudice with parts made in China - we'd prefer the ones made in Taiwan or Singapore. Now, pretty much everything is built directly or indirectly in China. Tell me a notebook you happen to like and I will most probably tell you it was made there. Even big japanese companies manufacture most of their products there.

 

Made in Taiwan....which....is.....in China.....I guess.....politically speaking...


But as mentioned, the Macbook is manufactured by Quanta and ASUS, Quanta is a Chinese company while ASUS is Taiwanese and are manufactured in their countries.

 

I was going to ask about that. Are Macbook Pros manufactured by Quanta and ASUS? Or just Macbooks? Or both?

 

I believe they share production now. And by the way, cori, ASUS is basically run by China anyways , their headquarters are in Taiwan but its the guys in the background in China that make the big decisions.

 

Taiwan and Asus are pretty independent from China. At least the management is. But Asus also has factories in mainland China where they produce most of their stuff. Taiwan is just for engineering and development and some high end factories. Taiwan wages are almost as expensive as USA/Europe.

China can make quality products. At least electronics. Its a cut throat business in China. Factories opening and closing all over the place. Maximum competition and huge cost pressure. So if the company does not watch over the manufactures quality, working conditions will decrees and pollution will increase.

Soon a lot of laptops and things will be made in Vietnam. They are booming right now and lots of manufactures are moving there. Cheaper then China and they are said to "steal" less of the technology and patents given.

 

All three laptops in my signature were made in China.
And both of my iPods shipped from Shanghai, China.
And my digital camera and my nokia cellphone are all made in china.

I wouldn't question the quality of the MacBook Pro simply because it's made in China, otherwise, you may need to question the quality of most of your electronics

 

I thought everything was made in China.

They make things other places?

 

To me, it's really interesting to see where a product is made because you can probably tell how much the company dedicates your money to manufacturing costs. For instance, Apple computers, which are mostly made in China, are priced more than their PC counterparts. You'll immediately know that the Apple tax is there. Apple spends more money on marketing and R&D.

The ultraportable VAIO TZ from Sony for example, is assembled in Japan... and it is one of the most expensive notebooks in the market today.

 

I enjoy things made in Japan. Don't know why, I suppose its their work ethic, that I can trust them into building my product, and I know it wasn't put together by someone who doesn't really care, they are carelessly putting things together and such.

 

your kidding, try paying Japaneses workers $100 to $200 a month and see what kind of work ethics they will have.

 

Aside from Sony, Toshiba (certain ones such as the ultraportable R500 which is what Apple ultraportable should be like if there is one) and Fujitsu are made in Japan and the quality of these two are generally accepted as superior to Chinese made ones such as Dell.

 

Panasonic Toughbooks are generally made in Japan as well. And everyone knows that they are generally superior in build quality.

 

Taiwan make excellent computer parts ( Example of Taiwanese companies: ASUS and ACER)

 

It has to do with the American corporations behind it, not really the Chinese workers. "Here's your supplies. Get 100 of these done by the end of the day." What happens when you impose ridiculous deadlines on low wages? The workers have to work faster to get their job done. They spend less time on each individual product. Quality drops. Its not the Chinese workers' fault, its the Americans.

Pay the Chinese workers American-worker wages, tell them to improve their quality or lose their job, and see the quality improve.

Why are products being made in China anyways? Because greedy American companies want to pay their workers less. If you really have a complaint about Chinese products tell the American companies to move their factories to America and hire Americans.

Sorry to sound harsh, but as you may well know, lately there's been a lot of faulty Chinese products, and I dislike how America is shoving all the blame to China. America's the one who set up the factories there. They're the ones paying low wage. They're the ones overworking the workers who have no choice but to work like crazy or have no work at all.

 

I don't give a flip where my electronics are made, all my China made laptops have been fine whereas my Japan made Lifebook P5020D was pretty weak in quality.

 

Over the years I have seen a huge decline in the quality of electronics. Nothing is really well made and I could tell the difference in the same dell lcd made in china vs one made in mexico. I have looked at Asus to provide a better quality product, for example my Asus 696 PDA has a pretty nice feel to it with its metal face plate. Sony I feel still has good quality. Last digital camera I bought a few years ago is built solidly to the point you appreciate it. My Sony LCD was made in mexico and is nice.

I do agree that a huge part of it is quality control, wages and more. When I am overworked and tired, the work I put out just isn't as good as if I had been rested and healthy. Companies that move work offshore try to let automation take care of all the details and use humans to perform the tasks that only they can perform. They try to make these as simple as possible to avoid error but of course there is errors. Humans are also only 70% or something consistent when doing mundane/repetetive tasks.

I don't know if "the man" is trying to make things worse and squeeze every inch of life out of chinese workers. I do know though that capitalism is at play and companies are sometimes even forced to go offshore because their competitors are doing it. However I would like to believe that this can be achieved in a humane way which leads to productivity/quality thus better for business.