In an interview today with NBC’s Brian Williams, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said Apple will start manufacturing some of its computers in America starting in 2013.

“We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the U.S.,” Cook said. “Next year, we’re going to do one of our existing MAC lines in the United States.”

Although the Mac has been made in China since 1994 when the company shuttered its two California plants. Cook cited several components of Apple’s products that are already made in the good ol’ US of A.

“The iPhone… the engine in here is made in America,” he said, referring to the A5 processors of the smartphone, which are manufactured by Samsung at its Austin, Texas facility. “And not only are the engines in here made in America, engines are made in America and exported.“

“The glass on this phone is made in Kentucky,” Cook added, referring to the Corning Gorilla Glass used on the iPhone and built in a Kentucky facility.

Although Apple has promised to invest $100 million in the transition to US manufacturing of some of its Mac line, some experts say the move is more of a PR boost for Apple than a major shift it its manufacturing plan. The Macintosh computer is the smallest of Apple’s four product lines, which also include the iPhone, iPad and iPod, in terms of unit sales. For example, in the past year Apple sold 18 million Macs compared to 125 million iPhones. Plus, most of the Macs’ parts will continue to be manufactured in Asia, and many Macs themselves will still be made overseas as Apple has only promised one line of Macs to be made in the USA.

“This doesn’t mean it’s bringing back component production, and it doesn’t mean that there will be a substantial repatriation of manufacturing,” University of Manchester Business School professor Karel Williams told CNN. “The Mac is a low-volume product that is irrelevant to shares. That means this is a PR move.”

According to Williams, moving manufacturing of high-volume products—such as the iPhone and iPad—into the US is simply not feasible for Apple.

“Apple needs huge Chinese assembly factories to make the net sexy product at moment’s notice,” Williams said. “No matter how well-meaning Apple is, there are practical limits on the manufacturing business model for what they can bring back to the United States.”

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