One possibility is that they know they can dominate the supply chain so effectively, they can make more per unit than a competitor could if they (the competitor) followed suit.
Similar to when Gmail came out and people were blown away that they offered 100MB of storage, and everyone (Yahoo, Hotmail) had to step up despite their far larger userbase. Then, when they finally matched Google, Google raised their cap to 1GB.
In this case, manufacturers will have to work hard to match Apple's bring-mfg-to-the-US actions, but won't even be on the same playing field, since Apple's worked so hard to maximize the efficiency of their supply chain.
Similar to when Gmail came out and people were blown away that they offered 100MB of storage, and everyone (Yahoo, Hotmail) had to step up despite their far larger userbase. Then, when they finally matched Google, Google raised their cap to 1GB.
In this case, manufacturers will have to work hard to match Apple's bring-mfg-to-the-US actions, but won't even be on the same playing field, since Apple's worked so hard to maximize the efficiency of their supply chain.