Market analysts warn about iPhone price increases: “I think (Apple) will have to go through a period of pain”
Donald Trump’s tariffs are set to see prices increase for ordinary Americans, with technology one of the most affected sectors of the market.
Donald Trump’s tariffs, you may have heard, were such a good idea that he placed them on every country on Earth except Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Cuba, crashed the stock market, scared the Japanese so much they sold American bonds, said 75 countries were “kissing his ass” and took the tariffs away for everyone but China, increasing them to 145%. By the time you have read this opening paragraph, 350 million cells have been replaced in your body and China’s tariffs have been raised by 40%.
It’s been the most unstable week in American financial history since possibly forever, and the only effect they’re going to have on the everyday American citizen is make things more expensive. From groceries (which if you didn’t know, are like stuff in a bag) to our everyday tech.
For example: iPhones. They already sit inside the Apple store with eye-watering price tags, regularly costing over $1,000 for customers. But guess what? They’re going up, and it’s Trump’s fault.
Here's this week's cartoon from The Economist.#tariffs #trump #china #cartoon #satire pic.twitter.com/1wmRyrW62S
— Kevin Kal Kallaugher (@kaltoons) April 10, 2025
Price hikes ‘will hit all phones’
Apple’s supply chain is largely based in China, where 90% of the production and assembly happens; with the huge tariffs, their import costs are necessarily going to increase. Speaking to CNN, market analysts suspect that the price hikes could happen “possibly in a matter of weeks or months”.
“I think (Apple) will have to go through a period of pain,” said Jack Leathem, an analyst at Canalys, a market research firm that covers the smartphone industry. “And that will mean price rises.”
When the prices will go up simply depends on when the iPhone inventory runs out in the States, which will then need be restocked. We never know when Apple will release the new iPhone - we think September - but prices could rise sooner than that if Apple gets rid of all its US stock. “The reality is, the price… increases that we’re going to see will hit all phones from Apple, as well as others, when inventory runs out,” said Ryan Reith, group vice president for the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Device Tracker.
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Estimates on the amount of stock Apple has in the United States varies from weeks to months, and the numbers don’t look any prettier when simulating potential price shifts. CNN explain it the following way: “analysts at UBS estimate that the base model of a $1,199 iPhone 16 Pro Max assembled in mainland China could increase by $800, or 67%, while an iPhone 16 Pro assembled in India could see just a $45 increase.”
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