Two years ago, serious geopolitical tensions between China and the United States led the various American firms working in the Middle Kingdom to diversify their production sites. Thus Vietnam, a small country in Southeast Asia well known to Uncle Sam's citizens, has become one of the main producers for these companies. For example, the latest Google Pixel was produced in Vietnam, but this has also been the case for Apple AirPods for several years.
In the case of Apple, suppliers are reportedly very happy with their decision and are currently seeking funding to expand production in the country.
But according to a new report fromNikkei Asia, Apple had to start mass producing the third generation “AirPods” in China rather than in Vietnam due to health conditions linked to the pandemic, Vietnam being today very affected by the latter, it logically cannot operate its factories at 100%.
Nikkei AsiaWe therefore learn that Apple will produce its headphones in China rather than Vietnam, but the Cupertino company still hopes to succeed in moving 20% of AirPods production to Vietnam once the situation is under control. In addition to Apple's wireless headphones, the latter would like to import MacBook and iPad productions into the small Asian country.
A lack of qualified labor
The biggest problem for Apple in producing new products in a country like Vietnam is labor. If the latter is not lacking for the simplest tasks, it is very difficult to find qualified engineers capable of designing large-scale production. Still according to Nikkei Asia this would have been particularly difficult in the case of AirPods 3.
While Apple preferred to turn again to China, Amazon remained faithful to Vietnam, but it is suffering from significant delays in the production of its connected objects such as smart doorbells or even the surveillance cameras that the firm can offer. by Jeff Bezos.
