Seeking to reduce their reliance on China, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others are increasingly producing devices elsewhere, such as India and Vietnam
New York Times : Tweets: @andreasharsono and @daiwaka Tweets: Andreas Harsono / @andreasharsono : Apple is producing iPads in Vietnam. Microsoft has shipped Xbox game consoles from Ho Chi Minh City. Amazon has been making Fire TV devices in Chennai, India. Several years ago, all of these products were made in China https://www.nytimes.com/... Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka : When the new iPhone and Pixel come out, a big change will be where some of these phones are NOT being produced. Tariffs, geopolitical tensions, rising wages are all contributing to a slow shift away from Made in China w/ @trippmickle https://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This story widens a shift that until now was mostly an Apple story. Apple had already been reported expanding iPhone, iPad, and Mac production in Vietnam and India back in early 2021 ([[a:1160348]]), and later moved iPad and MacBook assembly to Foxconn's Vietnam plants while scaling up Indian iPhone output ([[a:833933]]). What changes here is scope: Microsoft shipping Xbox consoles from Ho Chi Minh City and Amazon building Fire TV devices in Chennai means the leave-China move now spans multiple US device makers at once, driven by tariffs, geopolitical tension, and rising Chinese wages.
The counterweight matters too: Apple's own supplier list later showed its Chinese suppliers growing from 48 to 52 in 2023 ([[a:863871]]), and experts have warned India will struggle with iPhone production over supply chain gaps, labor issues, and low automation ([[a:833984]]). So this is diversification under constraint, not an exit.
First-order effects
- Apple's iPads in Vietnam and iPhones in India directly dilute its concentration on Chinese assembly — consistent with its push, reported by the Wall Street Journal, for other suppliers in China, Vietnam, and India to actively plan product assembly ([[a:985440]]).
- Microsoft's Xbox shipments from Ho Chi Minh City and Amazon's Fire TV manufacturing in Chennai give those companies parallel non-China lines for flagship consumer devices, reducing single-country tariff and disruption exposure.
Second-order effects
- Vietnam and India now compete head-to-head for the same assembly work; given expert concerns about India's supply chain depth, labor pool, and automation gap ([[a:833984]]), Vietnam's Foxconn plants gain relative leverage in bidding for future device programs.
- Foxconn's position as Apple's dominant assembler erodes as Apple deliberately cultivates alternative suppliers across three countries, forcing contract manufacturers to compete on geography as much as cost.
Third-order effects
- The likely end state is a dual-track structure rather than decoupling: final assembly spreads across China, Vietnam, and India while component-level depth stays concentrated in China — exactly what Apple's supplier list growth from 48 to 52 Chinese firms in 2023 signals ([[a:863871]]).
- If tariffs and geopolitical pressure persist, 'Made in China' becomes one label among several for US consumer devices, making country-of-origin flexibility itself a competitive requirement for any hardware brand selling into Western markets.
The trend: US consumer-device makers are moving from China-only manufacturing toward multi-country assembly footprints in Vietnam and India, driven by tariffs, geopolitics, and wages — while keeping deep component supply in China.