HP laptop finally shipped... from Shanghai, China.

[Bacstar]

Since when did HP assemble customized laptops or computers from mainland China? Last year I bought a customized computer from HP for my Mom, and it shipped from the states.

This year I ordered a custom laptop for the niece, and it shipped from China. Not that I have anything against it, just curious and a little bit surprised. I always thought HP or Dell did all that in the states? :\

 

[alent1234]

Foxconn builds Mac's, Dell's HP and some other brands. Acer builds for themselves and others. there are less than 5 companies in the world that build all the world's laptops. which is why most of them look the same

dell hasn't built computers in the US in years. they build in Asia, fly bulk to the US to get boxed and then shipped.

 

[Bacstar]

I knew they built the computers/laptops in China, but I thought things like adding more memory, swapping harddrives, you know, the small stuff was done here in the states.

 

[alent1234]

all the parts are made in china. why ship to the US to swap them out? it's not like they swap a 500GB drive for a 640GB one if you buy the larger one. they just put the larger one in the first place.

this is called upselling and how everyone makes money in the 21st century

 

[spacejamz]

my last three HP laptops I ordered from hpshopping.com over the past few years have all came from China...

 

[hans007]

seriously, all the manufacturing is there anyway.

I worked at the HP plant back 8-9 years ago for a couple summers. in long beach CA assembling stuff. there was a plant in tenessee too. but they were OEM plants working for HP. its just cheaper to do in china.

i know for a fact the one in CA it was just too expensive with workmans comp and benefits here. wasnt even the salary so much as the benefits.

a lot of stuff is still done in mexico due to nafta like refurbishment, but yeah... america is too expensive.

a couple years back i actaully visited a hillsboro intel facility for work that was just software dev / project management.... in the 80s it was a motherboard factory. imagine that an american motherboard factory!

 

[ioni]

My HP I ordered 4 years ago shipped from China. I remember because I was thinking that it was as far away from me as possible.

 

[Emulex]

dude i got my repair back from there. CHECK IT FOR VIRUS. or clean sweep install.

seriously. i would never have thought.

 

[alent1234]

seriously, all the manufacturing is there anyway.

I worked at the HP plant back 8-9 years ago for a couple summers. in long beach CA assembling stuff. there was a plant in tenessee too. but they were OEM plants working for HP. its just cheaper to do in china.

i know for a fact the one in CA it was just too expensive with workmans comp and benefits here. wasnt even the salary so much as the benefits.

a lot of stuff is still done in mexico due to nafta like refurbishment, but yeah... america is too expensive.

a couple years back i actaully visited a hillsboro intel facility for work that was just software dev / project management.... in the 80s it was a motherboard factory. imagine that an american motherboard factory!

when something is new and high tech the work is done in the USA. after a while when it's a commodity it's built overseas.

assembling computers is not exactly high tech

 

[hans007]

when something is new and high tech the work is done in the USA. after a while when it's a commodity it's built overseas.

assembling computers is not exactly high tech

the problem with that is... there are an awful lot of people in america who are really only qualified to do stuff like assembly so now they have no jobs.

or we make up fake jobs for them so then we have a billion real estate agents, or people who do things like trade fake securities, or support those fields.

half our economy is fake. it'd be better if all those "white collar" jobs were manufacturing netbooks.

 

[Tom]

and you get unemployment and higher taxes for those people who still have jobs as the cost of society is spread over a smaller group.

 

[alent1234]

the problem with that is... there are an awful lot of people in america who are really only qualified to do stuff like assembly so now they have no jobs.

or we make up fake jobs for them so then we have a billion real estate agents, or people who do things like trade fake securities, or support those fields.

half our economy is fake. it'd be better if all those "white collar" jobs were manufacturing netbooks.

you go work in a factory, and make sure to get your kids jobs there as well

i'm going to make sure my kids get "fake" jobs just like i have one. the benefits like working at home via VPN when you kids are sick can't be beat. i even laugh at the people who want their kids to study for decades to be an engineer or something like that. if you look at the distribution of money within a company fields like sales and legal get a lot more of the revenue than the people that make the products.

 

[jjmIII]

and you get unemployment and higher taxes for those people who still have jobs as the cost of society is spread over a smaller group.

lol, not if your rich baby! poor middle class smucks! (wait, that's me :\)

back on topic: my last HP lappy came from the same location

 

[WackyDan]

I knew they built the computers/laptops in China, but I thought things like adding more memory, swapping harddrives, you know, the small stuff was done here in the states.

Depends on the model and depends on supply. It is likely that the new model you ordered isn't supported stateside for what the industry calls "final assembly".

Lenovo has a facility outside of Greensboro, NC but only supports their large corporate customers from that facility with warehousing and final assembly.

Dell had a final assembly plant in Winston-Salem, NC that they shut down four years ago.

Desktops are a different story in manufacturing. Lenovo for example has a full blown desktop manufacturing plant in Mexico and a few others around the world as it is not price effective to ship heavy desktops from China to everywhere. I might add, Lenovo still has some of their own plants versus contract. I think Lenovo and Toshiba are the only holdouts, though Lenovo still outsources a good portion of their manufacturing to other companies. Ironically at one time, Lenovo made ThinkPads for IBM before IBM sold their PC Division to Lenovo in 2005.

 

[phantom404]

Mine just shipped from there as well by fed ex :/

 

[mammador]

It must be many years ago that the major PC makers made stuff in the US, or any developed country for that matter. :hmm:

Low input costs and low labour costs means a lesser cost for the consumer. People downcry a lack of US manufacturing, but I'm as sure not paying $5000 dollars for a netbook, desktop or smartphone. People complain that the iPhone is expensive, but if it were built in the USA, then it would cost a LOT more.

 

[Phynaz]

HP laptops are shipping from China, CTO desktops are shipping from Mexico.

 

[ther00kie16]

Yea, been shipping from China for a long time. We got one for family 3yrs ago and it shipped from Shanghai. Ironic thing was 2 weeks later, it was on a plane back to Shanghai.

 

[Fayd]

It must be many years ago that the major PC makers made stuff in the US, or any developed country for that matter. :hmm:

Low input costs and low labour costs means a lesser cost for the consumer. People downcry a lack of US manufacturing, but I'm as sure not paying $5000 dollars for a netbook, desktop or smartphone. People complain that the iPhone is expensive, but if it were built in the USA, then it would cost a LOT more.

not really. it'd cost only a few percent more.

the cost of the iphone is mostly in apple's markup. but even then, the marginal cost of production is mostly in materials.