Photo Courtesy of iFixit
Apple is assembly iMacs in the United States of America.
You read that right, some of the early run iMacs being delivered to users include the same text printed on the iMac iFixit received for their teardown. The back of the iMac reads “Designed in California, Assembled in USA.”
This wouldn’t be such a big deal if Apple hadn’t closed all of its US production facilities previously located in places like Elk Grove and Fremont, California and Fountain, Colorado. Apple’s products are designed in California, but have not been manufactured state side in some time.
Sorting the whole mess out is something Apple can explain better than the rest of us, but 9toMac has been able to confirm earlier generation iMacs have come in boxes with “Assembled in USA” printed on the side. The US Federal Trade Commission is very clear on what it takes for a product to earn the "Assembled in USA" stamp.
“A product that includes foreign components may be called 'Assembled in USA' without qualification when its principal assembly takes place in the U.S. and the assembly is substantial. For the 'assembly' claim to be valid, the product's last 'substantial transformation' also should have occurred in the U.S. That's why a 'screwdriver' assembly in the U.S. of foreign components into a final product at the end of the manufacturing process doesn't usually qualify for the 'Assembled in USA' claim." — FTC
Source: 9to5Mac, iFixit [via TUAW]
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