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Apple is currently worth something like zillion dollars (read: $656 billion) and it has no signs of slowing down. The question , when are they going to reach the unreachable summit? When is Apple going to break the trillion dollar ceiling?

According to Bilton, analysts and investors think a reasonable assumption given the current trends is that Apple will crack the $1 trillion plateau on April 9, 2015, at around 11 a.m., which seems strangely specific all things considered. But, Bilton warns, there are other analysts (read: more fun analysts) who think Apple could do it within the year. Yep, they think Apple could do it by August 16, 2013. No specific time was given.

Having Apple skyrocket up the stock market charts with a bullet to the tune of another $350 billion is unlikely. ?It?s hard to imagine Apple growing any faster," said Michael E. Driscoll, chief executive a big data and predictive analytics company, who thinks the 2015 guesstimate is right.

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That's what happens when an American company employees people working in slave-like conditions in China to make their products rather than giving the jobs to people in their home country. By simply reducing their profit margin slightly they could still offer the same products at the same price and provide the US economy with much needed jobs, while improving brand image. Instead the slave factories they employ have to put up anti-suicide nets at all their facilities to prevent their workers from literally jumping to their deaths, while riots break out due to the oppressive treatment of "employees". Globalisation has allowed businesses to avoid all the legal safeguards required in their native country by exporting jobs to countries which race-to-the-bottom to provide the worst working conditions and lowest pay. No company needs a trillion dollars in the bank and in fact it gives them far too much influence.

Infinite growth with limited resources and a limited population is unsustainable. The economic model employed by most countries and businesses is completely unsustainable and creates a huge amount of suffering as economies boom and bust.

I wonder if these "analyst" are taking in to account that Samsung is suing them over LTE patents and there is a good chance Sammy could win? A ban on the new iPhone or a huge payment for licensing could change some things. Seems that they just want it to keep growing like a few years ago they said it was a group of traders trying to push oil over $100 a barrel just because they could.

Worth on paper is just that.. worth on paper.. if their iphone dries out and people don't want it anymore and they lose their brand hype which is already happening btw.. that 600+ billion is going to quickly become near nothing. It's all smoke and mirrors.

  • Like 2

The are worth so much now in cash..not just stocks right? I mean they have CASH in the vault. Even if the stock drops to nothing..they have BILLIONS in the bank for reserves unlike other companies.

Here's some insight. Their operating costs (meaning just costs to run the business) are near $15 billion a year (this does not include items such as mortgage payments and capital expenditures and other stuff). This means that in about 5 years if they get into doo doo, that cash is gonna melt away. I'm not going into the fact that investors will want that money. They can't hoard cash forever. This is why many investors and people who actually know this stuff much better than anyone on this forum have concerns that if Apple doesn't introduce something as huge as iPhone or iPod, all that value goes away fairly quickly.

Will Apple go bankrupt.. no.. that's highly unlikely even if nobody buys an iPhone or iPad again, but we are talking about market value here. It's very clear that "value" Apple holds is heavily inflated and mostly brand related.

  • Like 2

That's what happens when an American company employees people working in slave-like conditions in China to make their products rather than giving the jobs to people in their home country. By simply reducing their profit margin slightly they could still offer the same products at the same price and provide the US economy with much needed jobs, while improving brand image. Instead the slave factories they employ have to put up anti-suicide nets at all their facilities to prevent their workers from literally jumping to their deaths, while riots break out due to the oppressive treatment of "employees". Globalisation has allowed businesses to avoid all the legal safeguards required in their native country by exporting jobs to countries which race-to-the-bottom to provide the worst working conditions and lowest pay. No company needs a trillion dollars in the bank and in fact it gives them far too much influence.

Infinite growth with limited resources and a limited population is unsustainable. The economic model employed by most countries and businesses is completely unsustainable and creates a huge amount of suffering as economies boom and bust.

Can't argue with a bit of that. What is very sad is that all U.S. tech firms seems to employ the same strategy and that may shoot them in the foot one day. It makes very little sense to actively shift jobs away from the very consumers that are supposed to buy these dandy toys. One would think people employed in the tech industry would have some foresight, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Can't argue with a bit of that. What is very sad is that all U.S. tech firms seems to employ the same strategy and that may shoot them in the foot one day. It makes very little sense to actively shift jobs away from the very consumers that are supposed to buy these dandy toys. One would think people employed in the tech industry would have some foresight, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

It costs too much in the states. If you had a business and your competitor had cheaper labor for the same product line you would have to do the same. Made in the USA does not bring in enough consumers to justify it.

It costs too much in the states. If you had a business and your competitor had cheaper labor for the same product line you would have to do the same. Made in the USA does not bring in enough consumers to justify it.

Does it cost too much? Could Apple (or anyone else) get by with a 100 percent profit margin rather than 300 percent? One should think so. I'd wager the decision to build overseas has less to do with competitive pricing than it does with increasing profit margins as much as possible. That will come back to haunt us in the longterm.

Here's some Apple USA Jobs...

http://www.engadget....al-photographs/

How many of Apple's retail brick and mortar stores are in the US?

How many data centers and planed data centers?

True, many jobs overseas but a few here as well and more coming.

Apple may not grow faster, but the idiocracy of fanboys does...

This!

When you are quite literally a cult, it isn't hard to suck your members dry of every dime they have.

Worth on paper is just that.. worth on paper.. if their iphone dries out and people don't want it anymore and they lose their brand hype which is already happening btw.. that 600+ billion is going to quickly become near nothing. It's all smoke and mirrors.

So true!! It just makes me wonder though at what point will people realize there are better alternatives out there to the iPhone?

The are worth so much now in cash..not just stocks right? I mean they have CASH in the vault. Even if the stock drops to nothing..they have BILLIONS in the bank for reserves unlike other companies.

Nokia was in the same position yet now their stock is rated "Junk" by credit ratings agencies and their cash reserves are fast disappearing; if it can't make a dramatic turnaround then it will either become insolvent or be bought up by a competitor.

Just take a look at Apple products: the iPod has already peaked and become irrelevant; iMac sales have never been great; the iPad will be facing very heavy competition; and the iPhone is starting to receive a lot of negative press and fast heading the way of the iPod. Without innovative new products that can be successfully marketed Apple doesn't have any future worth. That said, such a scenario seems unlikely at this point.

Apple should buy Facebook stock. :shifty:

I think Apple should buy Nintendo.

I think they should also Start their OWN Wireless Communication Service Company or buy up one like AT&T

I think they should also buy up Yahoo! to provide their own search engine and start with some base resources.

Think of the possibilities..

Nokia was in the same position yet now their stock is rated "Junk" by credit ratings agencies and their cash reserves are fast disappearing; if it can't make a dramatic turnaround then it will either become insolvent or be bought up by a competitor.

Just take a look at Apple products: the iPod has already peaked and become irrelevant; iMac sales have never been great; the iPad will be facing very heavy competition; and the iPhone is starting to receive a lot of negative press and fast heading the way of the iPod. Without innovative new products that can be successfully marketed Apple doesn't have any future worth. That said, such a scenario seems unlikely at this point.

Nokia at its hey day was 40$ a share. Not same as Apple at $684 today. Also I can fine no mention of Nokia having a 100billion in CASH. I know they had 62$ billion invested at one time off of there 40$ a share networth but not CASH reserve. So this is much different. Yes I believe Apple is on the downfall too but it will be a slow and steady ride and not lead to bankruptcy like Nokia.

You cannot talk of future products. No one can who knew the ipad, iphone would be popular. Most experts were saying who cares its a fad, blah blah. They still are selling this year, next year too.

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    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States by Hamid Ganji If you look at the back of some Apple products, you can see the famous phrase “Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China.” This phrase appears on products from one of the largest smartphone brands in the United States. These products are designed in the U.S., but their manufacturing takes place in China, India, Vietnam, or even Brazil. But why can’t Apple, as one of the largest American tech companies, produce its iPhones on U.S. soil? The idea for this topic came to me after the Trump Foundation launched a smartphone called the T1 and claimed that it was designed and built with American values in mind. However, this claim did not last long, as it was revealed that Trump’s phone was actually a rebranded HTC U24 Pro, with only a gold case and minor internal component changes. You see? Even a phone that is supposed to represent American values is manufactured in China. With a gross domestic product (GDP) exceeding $32 trillion, the United States is currently the world’s largest economy, while China ranks second with around $20 trillion. On the other hand, the United States is by a wide margin the global leader in various technological fields, and American companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually on research and development. From Apple and Google to Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others, American tech and industrial giants lead their foreign competitors in many sectors. The United States also has no shortage of smartphone brands. Apple, Google, and Motorola are among the major brands in the smartphone market, collectively holding a significant share. However, the vast majority of their products are manufactured outside the United States. So why is it that the world’s largest economy, home to the most advanced technology companies and industrial powers, cannot produce a smartphone on its own soil? Let’s explore this question together. Even threats to impose tariffs won’t work After Trump entered the White House as the 47th President of the United States, his administration adopted strict tariff policies. One of these policies was the imposition of a 25% tariff on smartphones manufactured outside the United States. Trump said he “had a little problem” with Apple CEO Tim Cook over producing smartphones outside the U.S. So he thought that threatening a 25% tax on imported phones might force Apple to bring manufacturing back to the United States. “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Image via The White House Although Apple currently manufactures some of the iPhone’s chips in the United States with TSMC's help, it still shows no willingness to shift full iPhone production to the country. At the time, renowned Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote on X, “In terms of profitability, it’s way better for Apple to take the hit of a 25% tariff on iPhones sold in the US market than to move iPhone assembly lines back to the US.” However, manufacturing a smartphone in the United States is not as easy as it might seem, and many technical and economic barriers are involved. The lack of necessary manufacturing hubs There is a clear reason why many companies prefer to manufacture their products in China. China has established itself as the main global manufacturing hub for international companies, and over the past few decades, large contract manufacturers have emerged there, allowing companies like Apple to outsource production. One such example is Foxconn, which also manufactures some Apple products in India. Building the infrastructure required to produce smartphones in the United States would require tens of billions of dollars in new investment. Factories would need to be built, essential manufacturing equipment would have to be installed, and, most importantly, a skilled workforce capable of operating these systems would need to be recruited and trained. The United States currently lacks the core infrastructure needed to manufacture smartphones, and for this reason, many companies prefer to outsource production to Chinese contractors rather than spend tens of billions of dollars to build that infrastructure, which is significantly more economically efficient. Additionally, building such infrastructure in the United States could take up to a decade, ultimately leading to a significant increase in the product's final price for consumers. Shortage of trained labor in the U.S. compared to China Decades of serving as a global manufacturing hub have allowed China to build a massive talent pool in the production sector that is almost unmatched worldwide. Today, if a company chooses to manufacture its products in China, it can be confident that the workers involved in production have years of experience in their respective roles and are capable of producing high-quality goods with minimal errors. Even if we assume that tens of billions of dollars were invested in building smartphone manufacturing infrastructure in the United States, finding skilled workers would remain highly challenging. Apple CEO Tim Cook visiting the iPhone 6 assembly line in China in 2014. Image: Tim Cook on X In a 2015 interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Tim Cook said the main reason Apple isn’t producing in the US is a lack of skills. "China put an enormous focus on manufacturing, in what you and I would call vocational kind of skills. The US over time began to stop having as many vocational kinds of skills. I mean you could take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in the room that we're currently sitting in. 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Higher labor costs in the United States Producing almost any product in the United States is more expensive than in many other countries, and one of the main reasons is the higher cost of labor in the U.S. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, median weekly earnings of full-time workers in the United States were $1,235 in the first quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, the average annual salary in China's private sector in 2025 was RMB 71,590 (US$9,961). In many parts of the world, the weekly wage of an American worker is equivalent to several months of income. Another important factor to consider is that in the United States, the workforce capable of working on a smartphone assembly line is highly specialized and therefore commands higher-than-average wages. According to an estimate by Bank of America, producing an iPhone in the U.S. is technically possible, but “iPhone cost can increase 25% purely on higher labor cost in the U.S.” However, this 25% increase applies only if final assembly is performed in the United States while components are still sourced from China or elsewhere. In this case, the price of a base iPhone would rise from $799 to around $1,000. But in another scenario, if Apple were to produce the required components for the iPhone within the United States, production costs could increase by more than 90%. Trump’s dream for a “Made in the USA” iPhone might never come true In a free-market capitalist economy, one of the primary responsibilities of any CEO is to maximize profit. Using Apple as an example, Tim Cook’s role is to maximize the company’s profits so that it can fund research and development for new products and invest in areas such as artificial intelligence, while also keeping shareholders satisfied. Therefore, it is entirely understandable that Apple would choose not to bring its manufacturing back to the United States and instead keep production in countries where labor is cheaper, and products can be manufactured at a lower cost, thereby maximizing its profit margins. What is your opinion about manufacturing smartphones in the United States? If you are an American citizen, would you be willing to pay hundreds of dollars more for a smartphone made domestically in the USA? Let us know in the comments.
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