Trump Mobile Draws Attention to Purism’s $1,999 Liberty Phone

Trump organization Make headlines last week When he announced the launch of Trump Mobile, a cellular service with plans to publish a Gold T1 phone in September. According to the website, one of its sales arguments is that the T1 phone is “proudly done in America”, although it does it not appear this will be the case When the phone starts, among other problems.

However, an independent phone manufacturer based in San Francisco has worked on the closest thing to a smartphone made almost entirely in the United States: $ 1,999 Liberty phone. Purism, which has existed since 2014, says that its handset, which has a 5.7 -inch screen and manages a owner operating system called Pureos, is mainly manufactured in Texas and California with almost all its manufacture and assembly carried out at the national level.

Exceptions, According to his websiteInclude a Chinese manufacturing chassis and some chip components from China or India. Its main processor is produced by NXP based in Austin and was originally intended for cars.

According to the Wall Street JournalThe battery and screen of the Liberty phone come from China and its rear -facing camera is made in South Korea. This is probably due to availability: in the case of screens, there are no American manufacturers currently.

In an email at CNET, the founder of Purism, Todd Weaver, said that the Liberty phone was sold with the label “Made in USA Electronics”, a qualified claim under the rules of the Federal Trade Commission. Weaver expressed his doubt that the Trump T1 phone will meet the same standards.

“The FTC takes these claims very seriously and it is my strong conviction that the application will follow in a timely manner,” wrote Weaver. “No, you can’t put an American flag on a golden back cover and a claim assembled in the United States, and certainly not made in the United States.”

A representative of Trump Mobile did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

The possibility of phones made in the United States

The launch of Trump Mobile has raised questions as to whether it is possible to make a smartphone entirely in the United States and publish it at a price that most customers could afford. Almost all modern smartphones contain parts assembled mainly in China or other countries, including South Korea, Vietnam or India.

Weaver said to the newspaper That his company sold less than 100,000 at a cost for the company of around $ 650 each and does not expect to compete with the latest iPhone or Samsung devices.

“As for consumers, it is safety geeks, parents who want a phone for their child, their elderly or people who want to avoid large technologies,” said Weaver about its customers. “Someone who needs a mean camera is not our audience.”

Certain estimates have suggested that if Apple was making an iPhone completely in the United States, the price of a phone could be up to $ 3,500 Due to the increase in costs and the price of building manufacturing infrastructure.

“We continue to believe that it does not make sense of logistical for Apple, or any other manufacturer of smartphones elsewhere, to produce mass apparatus in the United States,” explains Angelo Zino, vice-president and actions analyst at CFRA research which follows the data of the supply chain.

In addition to higher labor costs and fewer semiconductor manufacturers in the United States, Zino says that the construction of what is necessary to manufacture high-end smartphones would be a long-term project.

“The entire global electronics ecosystem has spent decades optimized around Asian manufacturing,” said Zino. To fully return the manufacture of phones in the United States, he said that “would require a reconstruction of decades of investment in infrastructure, and cannot be (made) in terms of months”.

However, high prices could bring some manufacturers of devices to move part of their production in the United States, he said.