Originally Posted by Craig

I the area of consumer products, the added value is not in the hardware it is in the design, marketing, features, etc. This article is a perfect example of what kind of misinformation you generate when you apply industrial age accounting practices to the current business model. To make a long story short, your $700 iPhone has a wholesale value of about $180 and is manufactured/assembled in china. However, the value added due to the actual manufacturing process is less than $2 per unit. Does the US really want to build these things in their country at a cost of maybe $50 per unit and raise the wholesale price to $230? The point is that the vast majority of the revenue associated with this product is staying in the US, china is doing the little piece that they can do more cheaply.

http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-impact-on-trade-deficit-2011-1