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What features do you expect to see in the new iPhone? Jefferson Graham of USA TODAY provides his wish list for Tim Cook and Apple.
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Would you be willing to spend $ 2,000 to buy an iPhone that today costs a great price?

That's what seasoned analyst Tim Bajarin says it would cost Apple to retail iPhones in the United States.

I raise this issue in the context of an exchange between Apple and President Donald Trump. Apple is concerned that the prices we are paying here in the United States for many of its products would increase significantly as a result of Trumps' tariffs for the importation of goods from China.

What Trump says he has an easy solution: build factories in the US and make iPhones here, instead of China. "There would be a zero tax and even a tax incentive," the president wrote on Twitter.

I understand where Trump is coming from. Give me a good reason that a California company can not manufacture its most popular product in its own backyard. Why should not Apple make iPhones here?

Well, here is the problem. This is not just money.

On January 17, 2018, Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, visited Reno for the inauguration ceremony of Apple's downtown facilities. (Photo: Andy Barron, Reno Gazette, via USA TODAY NETWORK)

Yes, the labor costs are much lower. Skilled workers in China earn about $ 100 a week, far less than what we offer. There is also the availability of parts in Asia and the lack of proper manufacturing facilities here.

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Think of the dilemma of the pieces for a second. Remember that Apple manufactures more than 200 million iPhones a year and needs to develop OLED displays, camera sensors, solid state storage drives, and so on.

These are all products made in Asia. The reason why the launch of the iPhone X has been delayed in 2017 to November compared to September is the scarcity of OLED screens. Apple did not have enough for the phone, and it took time for the factories to be fast.

"We lost manufacturing in Asia, Southeast Asia, India and Mexico two or three decades ago, and it will never come back," Bajarin said recently.

Apple is not alone. Cameras have been made in Asia for decades, Samsung is creating its Galaxy phones in South Korea, Vietnam and India, Amazon is getting Echo speakers in China and Google is making the Pixel phone in South Korea.

That said, I am convinced that if Apple wanted to collect the majority of its parts, it could do so. These are the people of Apple. Is there a young business that is listening that would not want to reorganize and become a major supplier of Apple?

Apple's Tim Cook said workers in China were trained in how to handle the assembly of products like the iPhone in a way that our universities do not do here. At what I said, open an Apple University and change our culture. It's a business with about $ 250 billion in the bank. I'm sure if Apple wanted to invest in American workers by financing and opening a business school, thousands of them would apply. Especially with the warning of a good regular job after the completion of the program.

I think the US consumer would struggle to exceed $ 2,000 for an iPhone, but what will they do – all will suddenly switch to use of Samsung phones? Sure, Samsung sells more phones every year, mostly cheap models in developing countries, but the iPhone is the best selling consumer device, without a doubt.

I suggested in the past that Apple could offer a special, more expensive product, "Made in U.S.A." the edition of the iPhone (in the colors red, white and blue, perhaps) launches a giant advertising campaign against it, and people, especially in the red states, will eat it. The Asian version would still be very important, because of the prices, but it is certainly something that deserves to be tried.

Finally, it should be noted that Apple is the largest US taxpayer and that it invests $ 350 billion in the economy over the next five years by building data centers and more in Carolina North, Oregon, Nevada, Iowa, and Arizona.

Readers, feel free to comment on the comments. I would like to hear what you have to say. Look for me on Twitter where I am @jeffersongraham

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