SHANGHAI: Battered by the US-China trade war and the coronavirus outbreak of the new coronavirus, US tech giants Apple, Microsoft and Google are not surprisingly looking to move more production of hardware products away from mainland China.
Google and Microsoft are accelerating their efforts to shift production of hardware to other parts of Asia, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. Google is also set to begin production of an upcoming low-cost smartphone, rumoured to be called the Pixel 4a, in Vietnam as soon as April.
Apple is reportedly looking to start a trial for the production of its AirPods in Vietnam and has asked suppliers to look into moving 15 to 30 percent of production from China to other parts of South-East Asia.
However, analysts say around 60 percent of device models are still produced in China.
