- The Trump organization says a new T1 phone is launching in August
- It will apparently be “designed and built in the US”
- But experts say the phone is more likely to have Chinese origin
The Trump Mobile T1 phone is arguably one of the strangest phones ever made, mixing odd specifications (a 3.5mm headphone jack) with those who don’t make sense (“5000mAh Long Life Life Camera”). However, it also comes with a great claim that it will be “designed and built in the United States.”
Given that analysts recently told us that “the idea of manufacturing iPhones in the US is a stretch” is this really possible? Or will the manufacturing reality of the “slim, gold smartphone” be a little more complicated?
We asked experts in the smartphone supply chain about their judgment on Trump Mobile T1 and whether it can really meet the highs “made in the US” target.
With T1 arriving in August for $ 499, it could theoretically steal some thunder from the rumored iPhone 17-but there are good reasons to suspect Apple does not lose any sleep over its unexpected, gold-colored rival from Trump Mobile …
The claim
The Trump organization has made some typical bold claims about T1 – it has been invoiced as the phone that will trigger a new era in American phone production.
In a press release, the Trump family business stated that T1 is “proudly designed and built in the US for customers expecting the best of their mobile carrier”. Elsewhere, the site claims it has been “built for patriots of patriots”.
Expanding the allegations Eric Trump said at “The Benny Show” podcast that “eventually all phones can be built in the United States of America”.
Still, the Trump Mobile Website is brief on specific details of how and where the Trump T1 phone will be made. According to experts, there are good reasons to suspect that this will be ambitious at best …
Reality
- Experts agree that the Trump phone does not meet its “put forward in the US” requirements
- It is likely to be a changed Android phone from a Chinese producer
- But Trump Mobile T1 could theoretically still gather in the US
Trump Mobile T1 does not meet the strict definition of “Made in the USA” for a few reasons, experts say – and these also explain why moving iPhone making to the United States is unlikely in the near future.
First, “Made in the USA” has a tall bar. Professor Tinglong Dai, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, said to us, “FTC [Federal Trade Commission] Has a strict standard for “Made in USA”: All or almost all parts and treatment must be domestic. Judging by this default is the allegation is unrealistic. “
But there may be ways around it. The “Trump organization’s” Built in America “language is not an official term, so there are plenty of wing spaces for them to make this claim,” DAI added.
Ben Hatton, market analyst at CCS Insight, agrees. “Our expectation is that the T1 phone will work around this by virtue of the assembly in the United States using parts from other places,” he told us.
On this topic, Techradar’s editor as a whole, Lance Ulanoff, also noticed: “There is only one company building phones in the United States, Purism. Its specifications do not match. Although it brings together somewhere in Trump Castle, they are still almost certainly buying components outside the United States.”
So which phone will T1 be based on? It’s still something of a mystery. “The phone is likely to be a tailor-made Android smartphone from a Chinese manufacturer,” Ben Hatton of CCS Insight told. It seems to be very likely – we tried to put T1’s specifications in Gsmarena’s phone finder for existing phones and it came blank.
Why can’t phones be made in the US?
So what does all this mean for the great ambition of manufacturing phones in the US? And why is it not possible?
“The biggest challenge is that we do not have an end-to-end tech supply chain, and the US lacks the manufacturing capacity of more key components. Even if we do, the lack of qualified workers would be a main bottle,” DAI explained.
Ben Hatton from CCS Insight agrees that a real “Made in the USA” phone is likely to not happen for a long time, if ever. “It is unlikely that the United States has enough work with the right skills for this to be achieved in something other than in the long term. The cost of labor would then go through the roof because of this lack of skill,” he added.
“Upending 50 years of development chain development by getting companies moving facilities would also mean complete transformation of these chains by making the United States ‘focal point’ rather than China,” he concluded. In other words, it is completely unrealistic and not compatible with the complexity of smartphones or our globalized tech world.
To summarize it, Professor Tinglong Dai concluded: “A bigger topic is that there is really no such thing as a full domestic supply chain.” You may have read the classic essay, “I, pencil” – even for something as simple as a pencil, you are talking about dozens of countries behind it, and that is before the current global supply chain – era, “he noted.
To see the equivalent of an iPhone, you can check out the excellent ‘mapping of iPhone’ Infographic from Arcgis Storymaps showing how complex smartphone supply chains are.
So while Trump Mobile T1 can carry “Made in the US” boast, experts agree that at best it will be “gathered in the US” – and even it has not yet been officially confirmed prior to the launch in August.
