In the present debates about US manufacturing and trade deficits, the case of the Apple iPhone provides several useful insights. Looking only at the US-China trade balance, the iPhone alone – just one product – appears to create a sobering trade deficit of some $ 33 billion. However, this is misleading and can cause incorrect policy decisions, because relatively little of the value of the iPhone is added in China and the bulk of its value is added in the US. Apple is responsible for far more jobs in the US (80,000 as direct employees such as researchers, designers, managers and marketers, plus an additional 450,000 jobs in the distribution of Apple products, and an estimated additional 1.5 million as independent media developers and brokers) than abroad.