Microsoft's Surface Hub to be made in the good old USA

While companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft outsource most of these hardware to factories overseas, the upcoming Surface Hub touchscreen PCs will be made in the good old USA. Microsoft has opened a factory located in Wilsonville, Oregon, outside of Portland, to assemble the big Surface Hub PCs, which will begin shipping sometime in September.

According to The New York Times, part of the reason for this move was that the touchscreen devices created by Perceptive Pixel, which Microsoft acquired in 2013, were also assembled in Wilsonville. It stated:

"Microsoft said the factory, covering about four acres with 18 docking bays for delivery trucks, now has a combined engineering and manufacturing staff of a couple of hundred people, about seven times that of the original Perceptive Pixel team. Although many components in the product will come from overseas, the Surface Hub will be stamped with the phrase "Manufactured in Portland, OR, USA."

Another reason for this move was that Microsoft could not find any existing factories overseas that would be able to handle the large Surface Hub, which weighs as much as 220 pounds. It would also be expensive for those PCs to ship from overseas to customers in the US.

Source: The New York Times

John Callaham