Is it possible that they switched the vast majority of their Mac manufacturing to China after the Intel transition? I see that a lot of you have PowerPC Mac's that have roots in the US, but I completely missed that era and have never had a PPC Mac. I'm not lying or using hyperbole when I say that every Apple product that I've ever used or owned was manufactured in China and not the US.
I did know about that Mac plant that they had in California, but I thought that it had been closed down a long time ago.
I would say so. At least shifting the last of it once the Intel transition was occurring anyway.
The Mac I am typing this on, a PMG4 of 2001 vintage, was made in China. So was my 17" PowerBook. This is why I was surprised to find out that a G5 had been made in the US. I hadn't realized Apple actually had a US facility back when they were shipping G5s.
I suspect the US plant closed soon after though. Perhaps that G5 was one of the last, I don't know. I have yet to run another Mac serial with a US code.
As to missing PowerPC altogether - well, I can empathize.
I didn't have my first PowerPC Mac until 2002 and I didn't really use it until a full year later. I was always a PC person until 2003, despite using Macs at work.
But I didn't own more than that one PowerPC laptop until November 2009, a full three years after the Intel transition and about the earliest possible time for PowerPC to come in to my price range. Only the early Intels are now coming in to my price range so I'm still out of date.