A few months ago, Donald Trump, president of the United States electro, claimed at one of his controversial campaign rallies that the Cupertino-based company would stop manufacturing its devices abroad and bring all production to the United States. Apple knows from the beginning that this is not feasible, not only for Apple, but for any company that is currently manufacturing its devices in China, since the manufacturing and production costs would be much higher. Still, Apple has reached out to Foxconn, Pegatron, and other Apple device makers to ask calculate what it would cost to move the production of the iPhone, iPad and other devices currently manufactured in China to the United States.
According to Asia Nikkei, who has leaked this information, Foxconn is investigating the possibility of moving all production to the United States, while other manufacturers such as Pegasus, have directly declined the request due to the high costs it would incur. Unless all production was done by robots, I highly doubt that Foxconn can make Apple devices in the United States without significantly increasing production costs and therefore the price of the device.
Foxconn may be looking into the possibility without having to use hardly any manpower, the main reason for the cost increase, and instead use robots, as currently available at the Shenzem facilities, where it has the headquarters. Thanks to the implementation of robots in the manufacturing process, the company has replaced more than 60.000 workers.
Currently Apple only manufactures the Mac Pro on American soil, a model that logically does not have as much outlet on the market as the iPhone can be. This measure would not only affect Apple, but also would affect all American manufacturers of electronic devices, which would increase the price of their devices.