From Jim H,
It seems Musk has some issues with Apple, as the following blurb announces...Jim
> Elon Musk threatens lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company artificially boosts OpenAI's app in the App Store;
Musk's xAI runs the Grok chatbot, a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT (More)
From Jim H
Take a read below on what Apple has announced. And here is what Trump has to say to Apple:
"I don’t want you building in India.” Hmmm?....Jim
The pledge was a “significant acceleration” of the company’s plan for more production in the United States, according to a White House statement. President Trump has threatened Apple and other phone manufacturers with a 25 percent tariff on products made outside the United States
President Trump plans to announce on Wednesday that Apple Inc. is pledging $100 billion in additional investment in the United States, the company’s latest move to ramp up its domestic production and avoid the president’s threat of tariffs on its iPhones.
The White House said in a statement that the pledge was a “significant acceleration” of Apple’s plan for more production in the United States and that the company had promised Mr. Trump to invest $600 billion domestically over the next four years.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, which was reported earlier by Bloomberg, will include the creation of what the White House is calling the American Manufacturing Program, which will focus on bringing more of Apple’s supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the United States.
The company said in February that it planned to spend $500 billion and hire 20,000 people in the United States over the next four years and open a factory in Texas to make the machines that power the company’s push into artificial intelligence. The company made similar, smaller pledges during the Biden administration and Mr. Trump’s first term, though it has not yet followed through on some of those promises.
While Apple supports more than 450,000 jobs with thousands of suppliers and partners across 50 states, the company has recently been expanding production in India. That has angered the president.
In May, Mr. Trump threatened Apple and other phone manufacturers with a 25 percent tariff on products made outside the United States.
During a speech in May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump paused to praise Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, for traveling with the White House delegation. Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, declined to attend the trip.
“I mean, Tim Cook isn’t here, but you are,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Huang.
Later, in Qatar, Mr. Trump said he “had a little problem with Tim Cook.” The president praised Apple’s investment in the United States, then said he had told Mr. Cook, “But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.”
From Jim H
With today's technology, computers and smartphones, and shopping on the web, passwords and password security is very important. The Prescott Computer Society put on a video program of this topic, and I've included the following link, if you'd like to view it. It is an hour long, but darned good!
https://pcs4me.com/1988/videos/08-02-25-online-security-secrets.mp4
Here's some tips from the video regarding passwords: complex passwords are OK, but longer is stronger, and strength increases with length. Here's an example:
qwt$T* -- this a complex password, but kinda short. (don't share this around, as this might be the password to my bank account, where I stash my cash!...☺️...). The time a hacker's program takes to figure this out, let's call it "X". If you add just one digit, the time to open it becomes 2X. Add another digit and the time becomes 4X.
Add another digit and the time becomes 8X, and so on. So, the strength increases with length, or the longer, the stronger.
A password manager app today can generate long and strong passwords for you, store them, and even open a website and log you in with the password. So, be careful with your passwords...Jim
From Jim H
The tariffs have hit Apple hard, as the following article describes...Jim
Apple anticipates a $1.1B price tag from tariffs next quarter.
Apple expects to face $1.1 billion in tariff-related costs next quarter on top of $800 million from the prior three months.
The iPhone-maker, which has been hit particularly hard by President Trump’s tariff push, still reported strong quarterly earnings, posting $94 billion in revenue and $23.4 billion in net income for the stretch between April and June.
Apple sold $44.5 billion worth of iPhones last quarter, up 13 percent from the same three-month period last year, at least part of which the company attributed to consumers trying to get ahead of tariffs.
“We would estimate the pull-forward of demand into April specifically to be about one point of the 10 points in terms of people buying because of discussions about tariffs,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday, referencing the 10 percent uptick in sales last quarter.
The company has found itself in a tricky position on tariffs in Trump’s second term.
It has long manufactured most of its products in China but has increasingly sought to diversify its supply chain by moving some production to India and Vietnam.
This has been less than beneficial given the president’s wide-ranging approach to tariffs this time around. Trump initially hit all three countries with hefty “reciprocal” tariffs before putting most on pause. Tariffs on Chinese goods remained in place, as Washington and Beijing went tit for tat on import taxes, raising levies on one another to 145 percent and 125 percent, respectively.
The two sides eventually struck an agreement to lower their tariffs to 30 percent and 10 percent, a truce they agreed to extend Tuesday for an additional 90 days.
In the meantime, Apple has shifted more production to India, prompting the country to overtake China as the leading exporter of smartphones to the U.S. last quarter.
From Jim H
If you have a newer iPhone, the following article suggests an update to iOS 18.6.
My iPhone is too old to take the update, though...Jim
From Jim H
Apple is jumping on the AI phenomenon in a big way. Take a read on the following. What, exactly, this might mean for Apple products is unclear at this time...Jim
Apple plans to 'significantly' grow AI investments and is open to M&A: Apple is open to M&A to accelerate its AI strategy, and says it's made seven acquisitions this year so far. Read More
And Tim Cook offered the following:
“We see AI as one of the most profound technologies of our lifetime. We are embedding it across our devices and platforms and across the company. We are also significantly growing our investments,” CEO Tim Cook said on the Q3 2025 earnings call with investors. “Apple has always been about taking the most advanced technologies and making them easy to use and accessible for everyone, and that’s at the heart of our AI strategy,” he added.
Updated: Tim Cook thinks AI is important enough to hold a company-wide meeting to discuss it...Jim
https://9to5mac.com/2025/08/01/tim-cook-holds-company-wide-meeting-to-address-apples-ai-woes/
From Frank C: If you have not been keeping up with the news, this is a new service from Apple, and could be a very good deal for keeping your products under warranty. Please note that there will always be a deductible and replacement cost not covered by the warranty!! See the link at the end of this article for Apple’s deductible and replacement costs per device!
Apple announced some big changes to its device protection plans this week with the introduction of AppleCare One. The new service lets you protect three devices for $19.99 per month. That means things like your Apple TV, AirPods Max, and iPad can be covered under one plan at a cost that doesn’t fluctuate. And every device after that costs $5.99 per month to add.
The company’s goal is to convince customers that this new service is easier and a better value compared to enrolling each device in its own AppleCare Plus plan. In reality, how much you save depends entirely on the Apple devices you have. People who buy its latest and greatest products will yield significantly more savings compared to those who buy its most affordable products. It’s a little confusing, so let’s break it down.
Apple claims that customers can save $11 each month by enrolling an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and an iPad in AppleCare One compared to paying for three individual AppleCare Plus plans for those devices. But that’s not true across the board for all of its models. For example, the monthly cost for iPhone coverage with AppleCare Plus starts at $9.99 for the cheapest and oldest eligible models, whereas the iPad and Apple Watch start at $4.99 and $2.99 (both of which are up slightly compared to prices before this week, when the Theft and Loss benefit was tacked on for either protection plan), respectively, totaling $17.97. In this case, AppleCare One is a slightly worse deal than buying plans a la carte.
Where the new service shines is if you own some of Apple’s most expensive products, like the iPhone 16 Pro, the Apple Vision Pro, and a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M4 chip. Paying for a monthly AppleCare Plus plan for each of those three would cost $47.47 altogether, according to a list of prices Apple PR manager Anna Mitchell shared with The Verge. AppleCare One, on the other hand, would still be $19.99 — for any mix of three products, Mitchell confirmed — which is obviously the better deal by a huge margin.
For a more typical product buildout — like the base iPhone 16, AirPods Pro, and the latest 13-inch MacBook Air — the savings are far more modest. With AppleCare Plus, the iPhone costs $11.99 per month, the MacBook Air costs $6.99 per month, and you can pay $14.99 upfront for a year of coverage for the AirPods Pro (monthly coverage isn’t an option, but this shakes out to $1.25 per month). AppleCare One would save you a quarter each month, thereabouts. Nothing to get excited about.
What’s important to keep in mind is, just like AppleCare Plus, AppleCare One only serves as the key to unlock cheaper repair and replacement prices. You still have to pay deductibles and fees for each and every repair, and those costs vary depending on the device, as well as the type of repair you need. How much you can expect to pay — which is in addition to your monthly AppleCare fee — is listed on Apple’s website. Either warranty plan you opt for yields significant savings versus paying out of pocket without coverage. For example, accidental damage to my iPhone 13 would cost $600 without AppleCare versus $100 with it.
The answer to “Is AppleCare One a good deal?” isn’t as simple as just having expensive, high-end gear. Apple hopes to lure those who don’t upgrade their tech with every release cycle with AppleCare One. One of its biggest selling points is that you can enroll devices up to four years old that are in good condition (or up to one year old for headphones). This beats the 60-day cutoff for adding AppleCare Plus to new purchases, which is generous but easy to forget about if you don’t enroll right away. In other words, if you missed the boat on enrolling your devices originally and want to reduce the upfront cost of repairs for eligible devices, AppleCare One seems like a great way to do that. Especially since there’s no mandatory amount of time you need to be a member before you can reap the benefits of cheaper repairs.
Apple has been going hard on its services in the past handful of years, and its efforts to get its customers further embedded in its walled garden seem to be paying off. Its most recent quarterly earnings showed that services earnings were at an all-time high, and AppleCareThe answer to “Is AppleCare One a good deal?” isn’t as simple as just having expensive, high-end gear. Apple hopes to lure those who don’t upgrade their tech with every release cycle with AppleCare One. One of its biggest selling points is that you can enroll devices up to four years old that are in good condition (or up to one year old for headphones). This beats the 60-day cutoff for adding AppleCare Plus to new purchases, which is generous but easy to forget about if you don’t enroll right away. In other words, if you missed the boat on enrolling your devices originally and want to reduce the upfront cost of repairs for eligible devices, AppleCare One seems like a great way to do that. Especially since there’s no mandatory amount of time you need to be a member before you can reap the benefits of cheaper repairs.
From Geeky Gadgets:
The release of iOS 18.6 marks a significant milestone, particularly for older devices such as the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. As these models will not support the upcoming iOS 26, this update serves as their final major software upgrade. It is essential to understand the details of this release to ensure your device remains secure, functional, and optimized. Below is a comprehensive guide to help you navigate this important update. The video below, from iReviews, provides more details.
https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ios-18-6-3/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/ios
from Frank C
7/13/25, 4:50 PM
PJ McDonnell/Shutterstock
For budget shoppers, Temu feels like a dream come true, with its never-ending discounts and low-cost shipping — the company's supposed key to success. However, behind the e-commerce site's flashy deals lie a growing number of red flags that have become hard to ignore over the years. The app is plagued by spyware and malware accusations, with former users and security experts alleging that it collects sensitive user information, including home addresses, Social Security numbers, and banking details. Some have even complained about noticing suspicious activities on their devices after shopping on Temu.
Additionally, many listings on Temu's platform have been found to be copycat versions of legitimate products offered on Amazon. Such listings not only deceive consumers but also affect the potential sales of the original sellers, who are often unaware and have not consented to the illicit use of their brand. Coupled with a drastic pricing difference, it is not surprising that many people fall victim to counterfeit and inferior knock-offs on Temu.
Complaints on consumer watchdog sites, like the Better Business Bureau, have also highlighted the questionable way Temu handles refunds, with shoppers experiencing weeks-long delays and even outright refusals, even for items that arrive broken or are never shipped at all. Overall, the platform
that once felt like a bargain goldmine for consumers has now become a hotbed for data privacy issues, deceptive business practices, and poor customer service. If you are still using the app, this is a sign for you to delete it.
Deleting your Temu account is not as simple as uninstalling the app or logging out of your account through the browser. Once you've finally realized that Temu is one of the online accounts you should say goodbye to forever, you need to follow the steps below to ensure that, apart from your user account, your data and purchase history will also be removed.
To delete your Temu account via the website:
1. Go to www.temu.com and log in to your account.
2. Click on "Orders & Account" in the upper-right corner.
3. Choose "Account security."
4. Scroll down and click on "Delete your Temu account."
5. Check the option that says, "I want to permanently delete my Temu account and all its data."
6. Click "Continue."
7. You'll be prompted to select a reason. Choose one or select "I don't want to provide a reason."
8. Click "Continue" again, and then hit "Delete."
9. Verify your identity if prompted.
Once confirmed, you'll be logged out, and your account will be scheduled for permanent deletion.
To delete your account via the Temu app:
1. Open the app and tap the "You" tab at the bottom.
2. Head to "Settings" then "Account security."
3. Scroll down and tap "Delete your Temu account."
4. Repeat the above steps (from 5-9) to finalize deletion.
Remember: Once deleted, you'll lose all order history, saved items, and linked payment methods. Consider downloading any important receipts before proceeding.
Before or after deleting your account, you should take the crucial step of removing any saved payment information from Temu's system. If you already know how to add or remove payment methods in Google Play, you most likely know what to do. Otherwise, follow the instructions below to delete your credit or debit card details so you have assurance that your financial information will not be compromised by the e-commerce site anymore.
If you use Temu through the Google Play Store, follow the steps:
1. Head to the Google Play website.
2. Sign in to your Google account.
3. Click on your profile photo at the top right.
4. Select "Payments & subscriptions," then "Payment methods."
5. Locate your saved credit card and click the three dots.
6. Choose "Remove," then confirm again.
This will unlink the card not just from Temu but from any Google Play-related purchases as well.
To delete card information directly from the Temu app or website:
1. Open the Temu app or website and go to the "You" tab.
2. Tap "Settings," then "Your payment methods."
3. Next to the card you want to delete, tap "Edit."
4. Choose "Delete card" (in the app) or "Remove" (on the website).
5. Confirm your decision.
From Jim H
Here's three Google tips that might be of interest...Jim
1. Stop activity tracking on Google apps.
Every search, every voice command, every tap in a Google-owned app is logged under your Web & App Activity. It’s the digital equivalent of someone reading over your shoulder — all day, every day. To turn this off, go to your Google account settings, then Data & privacy, and Web & App Activity. From there, hit Turn off, and choose whether to delete what’s already been saved.
You’ll also see the option to auto-delete future activity every 3, 18, or 36 months. That’s worth enabling, too. If you want to dig deeper, you can delete data from specific apps like Maps or News, or even remove activity one item at a time.
2. Disable location tracking and clear your timeline.
Google’s Timeline is a hyper-detailed log of where you’ve been — trips, errands, even your commute. If that makes you uneasy, it should. To manage this, open the Google Maps app on your phone, tap your profile icon, then select Your Timeline.
Tap the cloud icon to stop syncing location history across devices, then head into Location & privacy settings via the three-dot menu. Here, you can shut off Timeline, turn off location backups, and delete old entries entirely. You can even set auto-delete for your location data at 3, 18, or 36 months.
3. Turn off personalized ads.
Even if you’re okay with some data collection, that doesn’t mean you want it used to target you with ads. Google’s ad platform uses your activity, YouTube history, and location to build a profile for advertisers.
To shut this down, go to your Google account, then Data & privacy and Ad settings. Then click into My Ad Center and switch off Personalized ads. For extra privacy, you can scroll down and click Partner ad settings, and disable the toggle.
from Jim H
I read the following, tried it on my iPhone, but none of the following occurred. Maybe you'll have
better luck if you try it. If I just hold one finger on a page, the 'copy' option does come up....Jim
3-second tech genius: Swipe in with three fingers on your iPad or iPhone from the side to copy/paste or undo/redo. It’s the gesture shortcut pros (and now you) use.
If you shop on Amazon, you will want to take a read on the following alert. The message here is clear -- don't
click a link in an email you receive -- say, from Amazon, or your bank, or? -- that might seem to be a
valid alert. Instead, separately, go to the website or call the organization...Jim
From Jim H
Trump is pushing Apple to manufacture its iPhone in America. While in theory this might be a good idea,
in practice maybe not. The following article from Fortune Magazine explains why. It seems people don't care where a phone or other device is made -- it's the features that are important, as Google found out....Jim
As Trump pushes Apple to make iPhones in the U.S., Google’s brief effort building smartphones in Texas 12 years ago offers critical lessons.
The executives were well aware of the difficulties they would face in manufacturing a smartphone in the U.S. As with any great tech industry moonshot, the challenge was part of the appeal—and they embraced it.
“Conventional wisdom said it wasn’t possible,” the company crowed defiantly in a blog post announcing the new America-made smartphone. “Experts said that costs are too high in the US; that the US has lost its manufacturing capability; and that the US labor force is too inflexible.”
Soon, tens of thousands of shiny, new touchscreen phones began rolling off the assembly line at a plant in Fort Worth, Texas every day, and what seemed like a risky endeavor began to look like it could be a milestone—a bold bet on American manufacturing at a time when smartphone giant Apple relied on factories in China, home to cheap labor and legions of suppliers eager to produce electronic components.
That was 2013. And the company behind the bet was Google, which had acquired legacy phone maker Motorola Mobility and was leveraging its modern tech prowess and vast resources to make the Moto X smartphone a success. Just a year later, it was all over. Google sold the Motorola phone business and pulled the plug on the U.S. manufacturing effort. It was the last time a major company tried to produce a U.S. made smartphone.
The story of Google’s short-lived on-shoring experiment has been largely forgotten, a footnote in the internet search giant’s nearly three-decade history of business initiatives and projects. But Google’s experience, particularly where it succeeded, where it discovered unexpected benefits, and where it stumbled, are newly relevant amid President Trump’s campaign to pressure Apple, and other tech companies, to build their gadgets on U.S. soil.
In just the past few weeks, the President has demanded that Apple reshore a big part of its iPhone production from Asia or face tariffs of at least 25%.
The Google Motorola case study provides critical lessons about U.S. smartphone manufacturing that are still applicable today, as well as numerous intriguing what ifs. Was the project doomed by the economic realities of globalization, the competitive landscape in the smartphone business, or were Google’s shifting corporate priorities ultimately to blame? Could more time, or more effective marketing, have made a difference?
To piece together the history, Fortune spoke with five former Motorola employees who were directly involved in the company’s U.S. assembly push, as well as numerous industry experts and analysts. “We felt scrappy and felt we could carve out a niche for ourselves,” recalled Steve Mills, who was Motorola Mobility’s chief information officer at the time and who is now chief operating officer at Foresite Cybersecurity.
Many of the former Google insiders described starting the effort with high hopes but quickly realized that some of the assumptions they went in with were flawed and that, for all the focus on manufacturing, sales simply weren’t strong enough to meet the company’s ambitious goals laid out by leadership.
The phone at the center of the plan, the Moto X, stood out from the pack not just because of where it would be produced. Motorola would offer consumers who purchased the phone directly on its website the option to customize the device, with dozens of colors and materials, eventually including bamboo and walnut backs, as well as special touches like personalized engraving.
The company hoped that offering customized phones would give it an edge over rivals Apple and Samsung, which sold only standardized lineups. And the customization was well-suited to the on-shoring plan: By making phones in the U.S., Motorola would be able to deliver them to domestic customers within four days, instead of making them wait, while also saving on shipping costs.
In its marketing, Motorola played up the device’s pedigree as a patriotic alternative to the foreign-produced competition. The plant’s opening celebration was such a big deal that then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry and billionaire Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban showed up. The Moto X phone could be customized in different colors and materials, including backs made out of wood. The factory in Fort Worth, about an hour’s drive from Dallas, was operated by Flextronics, a contract manufacturer now known as Flex. To save on costs, workers at the plant handled only final assembly, using components that were imported from Asia.
The cost of labor was of course higher than in China – workers were paid an hourly wage that was about three times more than in China, company executives said at the time. But it was an acceptable trade-off, given the other advantages. Dennis Woodside, who was then the CEO of Motorola Mobility, said in an interview at the time that the customized phones were being sold at a profit.
In addition to the customized models, Motorola sold standardized versions of the Moto X to wireless carriers – an arrangement that helped ensure a base level of demand and production at the factory.
Apple vs. Trump.
While Apple does not produce customized versions of its iPhone, the company would likely face many of the same complications, plus new ones, if it quickly shifted iPhone manufacturing to the U.S. as Trump has called for. Higher labor costs are still a reality. And domestic suppliers are limited, with most based in China.
As a result, Apple would have to raise iPhone prices astronomically—at least initially—to make a profit, experts said. Instead of $1,000, U.S.-made phones would have to retail for as much as $3,500, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives estimated in a recent research note, concluding that Apple ever producing the devices domestically is a “fairy tale.”
Over the past six months, to reduce its exposure to Trump’s tariffs, Apple has accelerated a years-long shift in its sourcing of iPhones. Rather than China, its main manufacturing hub and initially the target of Trump’s highest import taxes, the company now ships most of its U.S.-bound phones from India, where tariffs are lower. How the trade war will ultimately play out is still in flux. Trump has delayed some of his import taxes and is still negotiating others.
But his comments in May on conservative social network Truth Social show he opposes Apple’s current workaround. In his message, he insisted Apple’s iPhones ‘must be built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has described Asia as better for manufacturing than the U.S. The reason has nothing to do with the difference in wages, he insisted in an interview at a Fortune conference in 2017. China stopped being a low-cost labor destination years ago, according to Cook. Rather, the country’s advantage is the far greater availability of skilled workers, such as the tooling engineers who create designs and molds for components, and who he praised for their precision.
“In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill the room,” Cook said on stage. “In China you could fill multiple football fields.” In an effort to appease Trump, Apple this year promised to spend $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. Some of that money, the company said, will go to producing servers in Houston for its data centers. But Apple hasn’t mentioned anything about bringing iPhone manufacturing back home to the U.S.
When it came to the Moto X, Flextronics, from the outset, anticipated a shortage of skilled engineers in the U.S. To get around the problem, it drafted engineering talent from its factories across the globe, including from Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Brazil, and China, and splurged on moving them to Fort Worth just to get the operation running as quickly as possible.
“We had to bring in a very cultural cast of characters,” said Mark Randall, who led Motorola’s supply chain and operations.
Rank and file assembly line workers, along with supervisors and managers, were easier to recruit locally because of the area’s status as a telecom manufacturing corridor, he added. Of the nearly 3,800 staffing the facility at its peak, most didn’t require intensive training.
Production at the plant, equivalent in size to nearly eight football fields, started in the summer of 2013. The operation was in a former Nokia phone factory, in an industrial park designated as a foreign trade zone and with its own airport for cargo. The location meant that Motorola would pay lower tariffs on certain components it imported from Asia. The savings would only kick in, however, if the company decided to export some of the phones it produced there to other countries.
Randall, who is now a supply chain consultant and startup board member, described Texas as a friendly home for manufacturing. In just one example of the warm welcome, the state gave Motorola a tax break for worker training, he said.
Setting up the Moto X plant required installing a massive amount of equipment, including conveyor belts and other machinery. Some, like certain testing machines, were shipped from China. Workers wearing smocks and gloves to protect the electronics from dirt and lint stood at blue tables set in neat rows while they went through the many steps required to finish a phone. Computer screens glowed above each station.
Fitting plastic parts, like the phone’s back cover, tended to be done by hand. Robotics was used for adding components like touch screens and for testing certain parts during assembly to make sure they worked properly. As production ramped up, process engineers, who sometimes patrolled the assembly line with stopwatches, looked for bottlenecks and rejiggered the assembly line. Like with any plant, the effort to squeeze out more efficiency was a constant focus.
As the first Motorola phone designed under Google, Moto X generated considerable buzz. The Android device, which was priced at $579 for the unlocked entry version, had a rounded backside and pioneering voice control feature. Users merely had to say “Okay, Google now” to activate the feature, to set up reminders and get driving directions
“It was a cool sexy phone,” said Mills, the CIO. “I got it for my kids.” The mobile network carriers were also excited by the Moto X, though at least partly for self-serving reasons, according to Randall, the supply chain guru. If the device sold well, it would provide the carriers more leverage over Apple in negotiating the wholesale prices they paid for future iPhones.
But ultimately, critics gave the Moto X mixed reviews. While they praised the ability to customize the device and its overall design, they dinged it for having underwhelming storage in the basic model (16GB) and inferior screen quality compared to the competition.
Made in America “wasn’t resonating“
As the Fort Worth plant revved up, workers quickly started pumping out up to 100,000 phones weekly. Initially, the plant’s staff was overwhelmed, forcing Motorola to briefly backtrack on its promise to deliver phones to customers within four days. But over time, the volume dipped considerably. In the first quarter of 2014, Motorola sold 900,000 Moto X handsets worldwide compared to Apple selling 26 million of its new iPhone 5s during the same period, according to Strategy Analytics.
Five months after Moto X debuted, Motorola slashed its price to $399. After nine months, the factory was down to 700 workers, or less than one-fifth of what it had earlier. Within the first few weeks, Randall said it was clear to leadership that the Moto X was underperforming. The team had to ramp down production.
While not a complete failure in terms of sales, the phone wasn’t a huge success either. Employees said they expected future models to do better, after improving the phone’s design. Many blamed a limited marketing budget compared to the big money that Samsung and Apple spent on print ads and TV commercials. Because Moto X was a brand new model, they argued it needed a splashier ad campaign to get the word out or a more convincing message.
One of the company’s big assumptions about the phone had turned out to be wrong. After betting big on U.S. assembly, and waving the red, white, and blue in its marketing, the company realized that most consumers didn’t care where the phone was made.
“One of the learnings was that assembled in America wasn’t resonating,” said Mark Rose, a senior director of product management with Motorola at the time who now coaches product managers as a consultant. Apple wouldn’t necessarily face the same challenges as Motorola, if it opened a U.S. smartphone plant. Their vast difference in size could make a big difference.
Because of sluggish demand, Motorola struggled to achieve the cost savings from making Moto X in huge numbers. Apple, on the other hand, with annual U.S. iPhone sales in the tens of millions, could more easily cash in on the economies of scale.
For Motorola, the challenge it faced was compounded by its decision to let shoppers customize their phones when ordering them online. Fully assembling those devices ahead of time, which would have helped make the plant run more smoothly, was impossible. It also led to higher return rates, an expensive problem for any company, because customers were more likely to be disappointed with the color scheme they chose. Apple, with its standardized lineup, doesn’t have the same worries.
Thanks to its successful track record, Apple also has significant control and leverage over its suppliers to negotiate lower prices for its iPhone components. Motorola, with its back-in-the-pack position and the uncertainty about whether its new Moto X phone would be a hit, had little sway in comparison.
Meanwhile, Motorola, along with most other Android phone makers, operate in an environment of intense competition that translates into low profit margins. Any extra costs, such as is the case with U.S. manufacturing from higher wages, can be financially painful. Apple’s iPhone, however, is a premium product that sells at a high margin. As a result, the company could more easily absorb the additional expense of producing it in the U.S.
12 years later…
Ultimately, Google’s changing priorities played a major role in its decision in January 2014 to sell Motorola to China-based Lenovo for $2.9 billion. A few months later, with the sale of the phone maker still pending, Google announced it would shut down its Moto X assembly line in Fort Worth and shift production entirely to China and Brazil, where production costs were lower. Instead of trying to compete with Apple, Motorola, under Lenovo, would focus on making cheaper phones aimed at customers in developing countries. “What we found was that the North American market was exceptionally tough,” Motorola president Rick Osterloh told the Wall Street Journal after announcing that the Fort Worth plant would close.
Selling would eliminate another problem for Google: Griping by phone makers that used Android software in their devices. They complained that Google, after buying Motorola, competed directly against them. Google had to take the rebellion seriously. If those partners bailed on Android, it would be a huge blow to Google because it would make it more difficult for handset users to access its services.
Another factor in the sale was Google’s rationale for acquiring Motorola in the first place. In addition to buying a phone business, Google had gotten Motorola’s huge patent portfolio that it hoped would help it fend off a growing number of lawsuits over Android. Apple, Microsoft, and other competitors had targeted Google and its phone making partners with claims that the operating system infringed on their intellectual property. In selling Motorola to Lenovo, Google kept most of the patents, tacitly acknowledging that they were more valuable to it than a handset business with disappointing sales.
In the end, Motorola’s failed U.S. adventure had little to do with where the Moto X was assembled, by all accounts. The phone simply didn’t sell well enough to justify a U.S. assembly line. “If it had sold better off the jump, the whole story would have been different,” said Gabe Madway, who worked in Motorola’s public relations at the time and is now at online investment management service Wealthsimple.
Randall, meanwhile, put it even more bluntly, saying the phone’s failure “had very much zero” to do with U.S. manufacturing and everything to do with the iPhone being a better device with bigger brand recognition than the Moto X.
Of course, a lot has changed in 12 years that could make or break a new U.S. manufacturing push by a company like Apple. Factory automation, for example, has greatly improved, opening the door to more cost savings in any U.S. smartphone factory now compared to before.
But some things haven’t changed. Adding thousands of workers on short notice to speed up production of a device getting more sales than anticipated would be next to impossible to do in the U.S. In China, it’s routine.
“If there was a ramp that went super well, the ability to flex that workforce is insane” Randall said about China. “The ability to scale down that work workforce is insane.” Also, there are relatively few U.S.-based suppliers that could produce enough electronic components for millions of phones. And expanding the pool would likely take years. Meanwhile, importing parts, the obvious alternative, may be prohibitively expensive if Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, proposed in April, fully kick in. It doesn’t help that the president frequently changes his mind about the levies, making it difficult for companies to plan ahead for big investments like phone assembly plants.
Mills, the former Motorola CIO, said Trump giving phone makers like Apple some wiggle room would make it easier for them to set up U.S. manufacturing. Instead of producing their phones entirely in the U.S, they could avoid tariffs by doing merely final assembly domestically, like Motorola tried.
“A big thing comes down to what Trump means by Made in America,” said Mills.
Another idea is for Apple to set up a small operation domestically to produce a “prestige or limited edition” iPhone, said Ross Rubin, an analyst with Reticle Research. It could charge a premium for the device, say $2,000, he said, and let Trump declare victory, letting Apple avoid the much more expensive alternative to onshoring a huge chunk of its iPhone production.
What is clear is this: Motorola’s Made in America experiment lasted just over a year, and in more than a decade since, no other major smartphone maker has dared to try something similar again.
from Jim H.
While I do use Apple products, I don't directly use an AI app.
And Apple might be making a change, per the following...Jim
From PC Magazine:
Apple Considers Replacing Its Own AI With ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude
RIP Apple Intelligence? Apple asks its rivals to create models that could run on its cloud infrastructure and power Siri. Across town, Meta courts top AI talent with $100 million paydays.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-considers-replacing-its-own-ai-with-chatgpt-or-anthropics-claude?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=whatsnewnow&zdee=gAAAAABnfB5GtN0cb5HJZOvsCVPlt5Av632v_8hsv77CbBgmOSeIiazXlXiCC7v1tKKsoUrpB6blT7lD7vOlfVJjhwErLm1wf4Y8yfYoYa90W541Yg6zBrQ%3D&lctg=42917571676
from Jim H
I just read this article about a tip for the iPhone. I've not tried it yet, but thought I'd pass it on and await
your implementation and response/comments of the feature first...☺️...Jim
From Jim H:
If you might be looking for a Mac, the following looks to be quite interesting...Jim
From Jim H
May 23, 2025
Save $100 on the Apple Watch, the best discount we've seen.
You can keep track of all your keys and gear for less with this 24% discount.
You can get the 4-star A16 iPad for $299.
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From Jim h=H
If you use an Apple iPad, there's some improvements headed your way. The link in the following article has more detail. Not mentioned in the article, though, is whether the age of your iPad may affect its ability to get the update. My two iPads are fairly old, so dunno!....Jim
OK, iPad: Apple's iPads will see a big change in functionality with the upcoming iPadOS 26 software update. Amanda Silberling argues this new operating system will allow iPads to function more like computers and become the work tool they've long aspired to be. Inspirational!
from Jim H
If you use a Mac, the following article will be of interest:
Macs under threat from new malware campaign impersonating major ISP — how to stay safe | Tom's Guide
https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/malware-adware/macs-under-threat-from-new-malware-campaign-impersonating-major-isp-how-to-stay-safe
One tip which I picked up from the article is, if you do a Google search for something -- which I do often -- don't click the first links that come up in a list. Google likes to use these as ads. Instead, scroll down a bit to perhaps get a link that isn't loaded with ads. I plan to check into this suggestion a bit further...Jim