New Mac Pro is labelled as “Product of Thailand,” and nobody is sure why

For various reasons, it’s long been useful for Apple to be able to say that its Mac Pro is made in the US. The rest of the company’s hardware manufacturing might be outsourced to a complex southeast Asian supply chain, but it can at least mollify jobs-obsessed nationalist politicians by pointing to the Texas facility where the top-end Mac is put together.

Contrary to what those politicians might wish us to believe, that facility has been open since 2013, and the company’s announcement that the 2019 model would be made there emphasized that this was merely a continuation of a long-running policy. The 2023 Mac Pro, unveiled earlier this month, continues this tradition as well. But something has changed.

As MacRumors has spotted (and as confirmed by an FCC filing), the 2023 Mac Pro has a subtly different label to the previous model. This suggests that Apple has either altered its manufacturing policy, or has decided (or been instructed) to clarify the policy that was already in place.

FCC

The 2019 Mac Pro carried the following label:

Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in USA.

The 2023, by contrast, has the following label:

Designed by Apple in California. Product of Thailand. Final assembly in the USA.

Nobody seems sure why the mysterious phrase “Product of Thailand” has appeared; Apple certainly hasn’t offered any explanation. Nor are we aware why the company felt it necessary to clarify that only “final” assembly takes place in the US.

It’s worth pointing out that the label has always been a little ambiguous. The Mac Pro is designed in the US, Apple tells us proudly; it’s also assembled there. But what happens in between? What about those parts that Apple’s well-paid Texas workers assemble: where are they made? In the southeast Asian supply chain, presumably, but Apple declined to put that information on its label.

Well, now we know. The 2023 Mac Pro is a product of Thailand.