Google Could Beat Apple to U.S. Manufacturing

Apple AAPL received a tremendous amount of press after announcing that it intends to build a Mac product line in the United States. The Cupertino, California-based tech giant will spend $100 million to bring Mac-making to Texas. Some components will come from Illinois and Florida, and the Macs will be built using equipment produced in Kentucky and Michigan. Some may be skeptical of this initiative, but it is undoubtedly a win for the individuals who find employment as a result of the investment. While it is not yet known when the Mac line will be built, Apple already assembles a small number of Macs in America. The company has been doing this for several years, particularly for custom-made Macs that require additional memory or storage space that goes beyond the primary specifications. Thus far, however, the Macs have not been mass-produced in the U.S. Google GOOG, on the other hand, is ready to start manufacturing at least one item in America right now. The search engine giant made its first American product, the ill-fated Nexus Q, last year. Now it will soon begin to produce a new Motorola phone, known as the Moto X, in Texas. According to The Wall Street Journal, the announcement came at D11, the latest conference from AllThingsD. Little is known about Moto X, but it is being promoted as a high-end smartphone. It will be one of a handful of products produced by Motorola as the company attempts to reduce the number of items released each year. Instead of shipping as many handsets as possible, Motorola will focus on building high-quality products that reflect Google and the firm's new direction. Motorola will re-launch its entire product lineup between now and October. Moto X will take a page from its American and South Korean competitors by making it contextually aware of "what's going around it." It is not yet clear what that means, but it is likely to involve features that attempt to make the phone useful even when it is not in its user's hand. Earlier this week, Samsung announced that it would unveil several new devices -- including a so-called "mini" version of the Galaxy S IV -- on June 20. Apple was previously rumored to hold an event on June 29 to coincide with the six-year anniversary of the original iPhone. It appears that will not be the case, however, as the company is not expected to unveil the next iPhone (or the next iPad) until the latter part of the third quarter. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ