Microsoft Picks Unusual Place to Make Its Giant Surface Hub: The U.S.

[IDemo]

REDMOND, Wash. — There is nothing ordinary about Surface Hub, a gargantuan touch-screen computer that Microsoft is about to start selling to companies as a high-tech replacement for conference room whiteboards.

The largest Surface Hub, measuring 84 inches diagonally, looks like an iPad that has gone through a growth spurt. The 4K resolution of the screen produces dazzling images. At $20,000 apiece, a price Microsoft plans to announce on Wednesday, it should.

Just as unusual is where Microsoft is building the Surface Hub: Wilsonville, Ore., just outside Portland and about 200 miles south of the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. That puts the Surface Hub in a rare category, since the majority of Microsoft’s better-known devices, like the Xbox game console, are made overseas.

In recent years, there has been a surge of optimism about the prospect of high-tech manufacturing jobs returning to the United States after some headline-grabbing moves, such as Apple’s decision to build its Mac Pro computer in Texas starting in 2013. But they remain outliers in an industry that has outsourced to Asia the making of everything from game consoles to smartphones.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/technology/microsoft-picks-unusual-place-to-make-its-giant-touch-screen-the-us.html

[djean111]

1. I will wait and see if Microsoft actually hires Americans before I cheer about this.

Any more, I kind of expect corporations in the US to hire contract workers from overseas at low wages, or hire Americans, but pay them little, with few hours and no benefits, and to have struck a deal with the local government to not pay taxes, and have a deal or loophole with the federal government that exempts them from taxes and/or gets them a subsidy.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Likely just for early production

until they get the kinks out of the production process.