Will the US$499 Trump phone be made in Alabama or China?
Trump Mobile is rolling out the US$499 (RM2,123) T1 Phone in August. — Getty Images via AFP
Buried in Monday's news of a new cell phone bearing the name of the Trump organisation was one tidbit about where it will be manufactured.
President Donald Trump's company said it is launching the Trump Mobile cell phone service, which it claimed is 'designed to deliver top-tier connectivity, unbeatable value and all-American service for our nation's hardest-working people.'
Along with the service, Trump Mobile is rolling out the US$499 (RM 2,123) T1 Phone in August, a 'gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier.'
But The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, according to the company, Alabama will be one of three states where the phones will be made.
A spokesman for the Trump Organization told the Journal that 'manufacturing for the new phone will be in Alabama, California and Florida.'
The Trump Organization did not respond to a request from AL.com for more information.
Eric Trump did say Monday that the first wave of phones wouldn't be built in the US.
'You can build these phones in the United States,' he told podcaster Benny Johnson. 'Eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America. We have to bring manufacturing back here.'
The Journal is a bit sceptical that any American-made cellphone will show up soon.
Earlier this year, the newspaper quizzed supply-chain experts on how quickly a completely US-made phone on the order of the iPhone could appear.
They projected years and a multi-billion dollar commitment to build the infrastructure necessary, which would result in a phone more expensive than the iPhones made in China.
The Journal's deputy tech editor Wilson Rothman said in the Journal's 'Tech News Podcast' that there are currently phones that resemble the specs of the T1 phone at this price point that are made in China.
'The thing about manufacturing phones in America is you have to have an infrastructure,' Rothman said. 'You have to have a workforce. You have to have things that you can't just snap your fingers or even throw US$500bil (RM2.13 trillion) at. It's not a problem that can be solved just with money. It really is a decades-in-the works kind of project.'
Regardless, Rothman said the Trump phone could do well in capitalising 'on the frustration of people (with) their wireless plans.'
And despite being advertised as an American-made phone, 'it is likely that this device will be initially produced by a Chinese (original design manufacturer),' Counterpoint Research analyst Blake Przesmicki wrote in a June 16 note, according to Variety .
'Max Weinbach, an analyst at research firm Creative Strategies, in a post on X, said the T1 Phone is likely being made by Wingtech, which is owned by Chinese company Luxshare.
'Same device as the T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G, custom body,' Weinbach wrote in the post, Variety reprted. 'Wingtech, now owned byLuxshare, makes it in Jiaxing, Wuxi, or Kunming China.' – al.com/Tribune News Service
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