What is the most trusted computer brand in the US?

by

Nothing electronic is made in the U.S.A any more, except maybe weapons. When you get down to the fundamentals of consumer goods, you get a PCB made in China populated with components made in China, in a box made in China with a power supply made in China. But it has an American flag and the words “Made in USA!” on the outside. Does that count?

 

Ok, not everything is made in China. Some of it is made in Japan, or Korea, or Taiwan, or Thailand. Occasionally something is made in India, or the Philippines. But you can be quite certain that as far as consumer goods go, none of it is made in USA. You might get something with a label “Assembled in Mexico”. All that means is the parts were made in China, imported to Mexico, assembled there, and imported as finished goods duty free under NAFTA, thereby bypassing the tariffs.

 

I have a manufacturing business. We tried to get our supplies from US manufacturers, because I believe in watering your own garden. I would order PCBs from Chicago to support American workers, and they would be drop shipped to me from China. I discovered I could order them from China myself from the same Chinese manufacturer for a third of the price.

Researching the components on the bill of materials, we found that not only are most of them made in China, but purchasing direct means paying half the price or less – often much less. A part we bought from a US distributor for $1 costs us 11 cents. A $2.50 relay costs us 55 cents. An $18 LCD costs $7.25. We found the original Chinese manufacturer of a small plastic part the US distributor sells for $0.74 and now buy them for $0.015!

 

Altogether, we got the bill of materials cost down from $168 to $62 by buying direct from China. If we didn’t have to pay the Trump tariff it would be $50. Our production machinery comes from China, because there was no other source for it – it isn’t made here. But we assemble our product here using American workers, so we can put a US flag on the box and say, “Made in USA!”

76 thoughts on “What is the most trusted computer brand in the US?”

Leave a Comment