I've been wondering whether the rise in shipping costs (fuel being the biggest part of that), along with worries over potential political upheavals, might cause a shift in thinking about where to locate plants. Sure, labor is cheaper elsewhere - but a plant located in North America could be heavily automated (keeping labor costs down), and close to shipping points (dropping those costs). It's not quite that simple, of course - plenty of the products built in Asia are bound for Asia now (and more will be in the future) - but it looks like Apple may be thinking about this subject - check out this speculation piece by Seth Weintraub at ComputerWorld.
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