It’s not three years late, and we’ve know for years it was going to be a multi-year development effort. In any case, I don’t expect Apple to miss the Fall 2019 commitment regardless of where they assemble the Mac Pro. If the parts were already in China, they’ll simply ship them here. There are many, many flights daily between China and the US.
Pragmatically it is three years late. The April 2017 "starting point" was already late. That starting point was about 3.5 years after the previous Mac Pro. If go back in this thread I pointed out at the time folks with 4-6 month timelines were likely very wrong. I expected 12-18 months (maybe 24 if there was a supplier screw up: Intel/AMD ) from that April. However, that was in the context of just how late it would arrive displaced from where it should have arrived with responsible product management.
From the perspective of the "box with slots" folks there hasn't been a new product since 2010. Arriving in 2019 and creeping very close to 2020 would be by all reasonable measures , late. It has really only been a matter since April 2017 of just how
badly late the new product would be. Not whether it is late or not. Being already late was in part why Apple pragmatically had to start talking about in 2017.
If there was minuscule problems with the roll out schedule there would have been no pow-wow discussion.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever assembled (manufactured) a computer before but it’s hardly rocket science. It’s not like they’re going to be fabbing 20-layer PCBs in Texas; they’ll arrive completely assembled and tested, 1,000 to a pallet. Same with GPU modules, power supplies and every other necessary component. Parts sourced in the US will arrive by truck, as will pallets from the airport and containers from the port.
Errr, no. Even if the board is tested earlier you'd still have to retest the assembled system. Making one car from a kit does not put you in the same major car maker assembly line. There are logistics in making 200-300 systems per day that don't show up if just making two. Flow of parts , different staging areas , etc.
It isn't rocket science but, have to lay out the assembly line right or else run into problems. ( e.g., Tesla trying to cram 3 different car lines into one factory building ... didn't really work all that well. )
If they have to weave this in with other product lines at the plant the ballet get all the more complicated. Plus it isn't even Apple doing the work. You can't just show up on a Tuesday and say want a whole product line rolling on next Wednesday .
I’d expect the chassis will be fabricated and assembled here as they are no doubt quite heavy,
Not sure why expect that since in the stories I linked in can see Apple applied for a wavier for importing the case which is probably the heaviest component. The "space frame" I suspect with part of that 'enclosure' exception too.
but if it’s faster or cheaper they might do that in China, who knows.
It is "faster" if Apple planned for 10 months to put it there and is now switching gears.
That's substantially the issue. If on day "zero" this new system was treated with some urgency , then throwing curve ball delays in assembly and winding it up into a trade war pawn status was an exceedingly dubious move. It failed. And now the product is even more late than it already was.
