Tim Cook says a line of Mac computers will be produced in the U.S. next year

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said in an interview that a line of Mac computers will be produced in the U.S. next year, although he hasn't stated whether this will be an existing model, or an entirely new one.

In an interview with NBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said next year, one of its Mac computer lines will be manufactured in the U.S. The news comes on the back of Apple’s new iMac computers bearing the words “Assembled in the USA” on the rear, and after many calls for the company to move its manufacturing away from China.

Before revealing the future plans, Cook made a point to say several iPhone 5 components, including the screen, are already produced in America. NBC’s Brian Williams, who was interviewing Cook, asked him how moving manufacturing away from China would affect the cost of the device. Cook countered this by saying it wasn’t about price, but about skills, and that the education system wasn’t geared up to provide people with the skills needed for modern manufacturing.

While Cook may bemoan the lack of education in this sector, he does hope Apple’s decision to produce a computer on home soil will persuade other companies to do so too. Although a Mac computer line will be made in the U.S. next year, exactly which one wasn’t stated, leaving us to consider whether it will be an existing product — the iMac perhaps — or an entirely new line that will start its life being produced outside of China.

In an equally revealing interview with Bloomberg, Cook was also probed about Apple’s manufacturing plans. There he says “we are going to bring some production to the U.S. on the Mac” next year, and that the company has been “working on this for a long time.” Apple expects to “invest over $100 million” but says “that doesn’t mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people, and we’ll be investing our money.”

In addition to the jobs that could be created by bringing the manufacturing of Mac computers into America, Cook says Apple has “created 600,000 jobs” in the U.S. already — although some are indirectly, such as app development — and is currently building three new data centers in the country too.