HP to Apple: We already make PCs in the US, thank you very much

Apple's CEO Tim Cook made a lot of headlines this week when he announced the company would start making some of its Mac PCs in the U.S. sometime in 2013.  Some have been critical of Apple making its devices outside the US, particularly in China where the labor is cheap and many fear the workers in factories such as Foxconn are overworked for low pay.

This week, HP quietly posted word on its website that it already assembles many of its PCs in the U.S. That includes all of its workstations in a factory in Indiana, as well as 36 percent of its business desktop PCs. HP servers are made in Houston, Texas. HP says, "In 2012, we expect to assemble 2.9 million PC units in the United States.”

News.com reports that even some of HP's business EliteBook laptops are assembled in North America, although there's no specific city or state named by HP. And what about consumer PCs? Tony Prophet, senior vice president of operations at HP, states, "We're marginally moving even some consumer PC [assembly] back to North America. Doing less of that in China."

While many of the components inside HP PCs may still be made overseas, the fact that the PC maker still assembles quite a few of them in the U.S., and plans to do more, is a big bullet point in their favor.