Is a U.S. address in Foxconn's future? Don't bet on it

Foxconn employees working on Apple products.

(Credit: Apple)

With unemployment close to 8 percent, you can understand why this headline would grab peoples' attention. A story in Digitimes reports that Foxconn is scouting prospective sites in the United States for future manufacturing plants.

I've reached out to Foxconn for comment and will update when there's more information, but if the company indeed does set up shop on this side of the Pacific, this would qualify as one of the tech world's biggest head-scratching moments of 2012.

For the record, consider me skeptical; but let's try and make the case why this might make sense. The Digitimes story talks about LCD TV production, but once the camel gets its nose under the tent, why stop there? Exhibit A could include the comments offered up the other day by Foxconn's Chairman Terry Gou, who revealed just how badly the company was straining just to keep pace with current iPhone production demands. Any extra manufacturing capacity coming online would go a long way to help relieve that crunch. Then there's the political benefit of turning out products with "Made in the U.S.A." labels stamped on the back, no small benefit given the touchy state of U.S.-Sino trade relations these day... [Read more]