Apple Begins Charm Offensive Against Critics: Claims Will Start Bringing U.S. Jobs Back

Wouldn't it be swell if the studios and networks felt the same way about their own runaway production? Apple's chief Tim Cook took on his Bad Apple critics in interviews this week ' one airing tonight on Rock Center With Brian Williams (see the video below) and the other with Bloomberg Businessweek. Now Cook is claiming a line of Apple's Mac computers will be manufactured in the U.S. in 2013. Certainly the Cupertino company has met with terrible press recently on at least two fronts ' those Chinese worker walkouts over allegations of oppressive Foxconn working conditions on the new iPhone 5, and The New York Times exposé about Apple using creative accounting and legal loopholes to deprive U.S. and California government coffers of billions in badly needed corporate tax dollars while the fiscal cliff looms. When Williams asked Cook why Apple isn't a made-in-America company, Cook mentally stripped the iPhone 5 and pointed out how much of it is actually made in America. 'And we've been working for years on doing more and more in the United States. Next year, we will do one of our existing Mac lines in the United States' Honestly, it's not so much about price, it's about the skills, et cetera. Over time, there are skills that are associated with manufacturing that have left the U.S. Not necessarily people, but the education system stopped producing them.' Cook reiterated his plans to hire U.S. manufacturing partners for domestically made Macs in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. 'We could have quickly maybe done just assembly, but it's broader because we wanted to do something more substantial. So we'll literally invest over $100' million' We have a responsibility to create jobs. I don't think we have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job, but I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs ' This is our home market, and I take all of those very seriously'jobs, education, giving back, the environment.'

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