Two of Apple’s iPhone manufacturers, Luxshare Precision Industry, and Foxconn, have begun testing Apple Watch manufacturing in a new facility in northern Vietnam. And now Nikkei Asia is reporting the iPhone maker is looking to move MacBook manufacturing to Vietnam as well, as the company looks to diversify its supply lines away from China.
The Apple Watch is presently the most popular smartwatch of 2021, maintaining a 30% market share that easily beat the market shares of Samsung, Huawei, and Garmin.
Already Apple has begun moving elements of its Chinese iPhone production to India, and started exploring moving iPad assembly to both India and Vietnam.
According to one report, BYD, the China-based producer of the iPad, has already built production lines in Vietnam that are producing small quantities of iPads as part of a pilot program.
Apple’s transition away from Chinese manufacturing comes amid recurrent lockdowns by Chinese authorities due to Covid-19 outbreaks that have triggered supply chain disruptions, as well as rising geopolitical tensions over the island nation of Taiwan and growing military aggression by China in the waters around it.
The Daily Financial Trends