Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, said that technically, if statisticians can better capture the value of software developed in Silicon Valley and embedded in global smartphones, the United States The trade deficit is expected to be halved.
Trade economists have long advocated that the current method of collecting data does not reflect the complexity of modern global supply chains, and the iPhone’s physical products are often cited examples.
Although the United States' import data reflects that all retail costs for a mobile phone come from China, in fact, China only adds a small part of the value because these mobile phones are assembled from parts around the world in China. Most of the profits have also flowed to the United States' Apple company, not its Chinese supplier.
Statisticians have slightly different treatment of Google’s Android operating system (80% of smartphones installed in the world) because the software is open source and Google uses it with those who agree to pre-install Google on their devices. App's company conducts swap transactions.