President Donald Trump’s tariffs started going into effect on April 5, and Apple reportedly brought as many products into the United States as possible just before the deadline. That includes five planes full of iPhones and other products coming in from India.
New taxes on imports are expected to push up prices for electronics, including ones from Apple. But with a considerable stockpile, it might be months before Apple is forced into a price increase.
Apple rushed to beat Trump tariffs
Last week, Trump slapped all major manufacturing countries with heavy import tariffs in a bid to reshape international trade. There are new import taxes on practically every country worldwide, and these are quite high in ones where Apple products are assembled. That includes China at 54%, India at 26% and Vietnam at 46%.
To lessen the immediate impact of these taxes, Apple reportedly started stockpiling inventory in the United States.
“Factories in India and China and other key locations had been shipping products to the US in anticipation of the higher tariffs coming into play,” a source told MSN.
Apple now allegedly has enough inventory in the United States to satisfy demand “for the next few months,” according to MSN.
Cost to produce an iPhone could rise 46%
These new taxes will have to be paid by someone. But there are questions on exactly how high the expense will be. Plenty of experts are trying to estimate what effect the Trump tariffs will have on the cost of Apple products.
As one example, Wayne Lam with TechInsights told the Wall Street Journal that Apple’s cost to produce each iPhone 16 Pro is about $580. The analyst says that factoring in the additional taxes charged to bring the unit into the United States raises that cost by $270 — so the cost hits $850.
That’s still below the $1,100 selling price. But the remaining $250 isn’t much to cover the cost of developing iOS and all its associated software, plus advertising and the many other expenses related to running Apple, Inc. And the company would like to earn a profit, too.
Trump says the answer to avoiding his tariffs is to make the iPhone in the United States. But that comes with additional costs, too. Apple has the iPhone assembled in China, India, etc. because labor costs there are so low. “By Lam’s estimates, the assembly labor that might cost $30 per phone in China could cost $300 in the U.S.,” said the WSJ.
All this leaves shoppers wondering if price hikes are imminent. We have advice on whether you should upgrade your Apple gear now.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
