Some new iMacs appear to have been assembled in the U.S.
A few users around the Web are reporting that their new, ultra-thin iMac computers have “Assembled in USA” on them, causing people to wonder if Apple has returned some of its manufacturing work back to the United States.
Normally when you buy an Apple product, somewhere on the device it says “Designed by Apple in California” followed by “Assembled in China.” However, that hasn’t been the case with all of the new 21.5-inch iMacs, which came out last week.
One iMac that was disassembled by iFixit, which sells repair parts for Apple products and does tear-down reports when new gadgets go on sale, also read “Assembled in USA.” And following the iFixit tear-down, more reports have hit the Web saying they too have found iMacs assembled in good ‘ole America.
Fortune on Saturday said it was contacted by a reader who purchased one of the new computers that also says assembled in America. And Jay Yarrow, an editor at Business Insider, also tweeted that he too was contacted by a reader with one of the American iMacs.
For now, Apple has kept mum on the subject and hasn’t returned our request for comment, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation.
Nine to 5 Mac, for example, wrote a report saying the computers may be getting built at Apple’s Elk Grove, Calif., site, where Apple used to manufacture some of its computers until 2004. The 9 to 5 Mac report also speculates that the few American-assembled iMacs may simply be a limited run.
Of course, many other new iMacs say they were assembled in China, and 9 to 5 Mac says there’s at least one that was put together in Ireland. This also isn’t the first time iMac computers say they were assembled in the U.S.A. But the general consensus has been that those computers in the past were made-to-order products that called for unique specifications unlike the off-the-shelf computers, which appears to be the case this time around.
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