SiTime

Stabitha_Christie said:

 “The army of millions and millions of people screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America" -Howard Lutnick 

So, if there was any question about if the Trump administration knows what it is doing, there it is. Not an f--ing clue. The cult will still carry water for Dear Leader because the cult has gotta cult. 

When I read your reply a few hours ago, I assumed it was a fake quote. Not that you posting fake news, but that you were doing an obvious-parody of something stupid that Lutnick might say. I thought it was a parody and I laughed. And then I gave your reply a ‘Like’ because it was quite funny.

NYC362 said:

Unless something changes in the next 22 days, headwinds will be an understatement.  

I'm sure the dividend payout will remain the same- a comment above mine says, lowering it would arouse even more panic.  What I would hope to hear is how they plan to navigate the issue of tariffs- How much production can be moved to countries where the tariff is lower, etc.  Will prices of services go up to help provide more income to soften the blow on the hardware side?

While I would doubt this will happen, since it's just not Apple's style, I want to see any price increase in the store itemize EXACTLY how much of it is a result of the tariffs.

Sort of like:
iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB: $1099
Trump Tariff:                         $  400 
Final Price (exc. Sales Tax): $1499

In fact, every single product sold in this country, from every company should do the same.  Let people see exactly how much the man in the White House is costing us. 

Have you noticed how quiet the CEOs of S&P 500 (and similar-size) companies have been in criticizing Trump directly over the tariffs? A itemized line on an Apple Store receipt showing the exact dollar amount of the “Trump Tariffs” is probably not going to happen. (Very doubtful, as you similarly-said in your reply that I’m quoting.)

Maybe that will happen with smaller companies with CEOs willing to dive deep into the mucky, swampy waters of American politics. But let’s not expect any such courage/stupidity amongst the likes of Tim Cook and other high-profile CEOs.

Let’s not forget that Tim Apple personally donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund just 14 or so weeks ago. It feels longer than 14 weeks ago, right? It feels like we are in year-three of this, but it’s only month-three.

We’ve also all seen what happened to The Walt Disney Company when it opposed Ron DeSantis and the Republican legislature in Florida: Bob Chapek out as CEO and Bob Iger back in as CEO for a second go-around.

It would take an especially courageous/stupid high-profile CEO of a consumer-facing brand to get the ball rolling with an itemized “Trump Tariff” receipt (and take all the initial threats — both political threats and actual violent threats) before other high-profile CEOs of consumer-facing brands even think about the possibility of maybe doing something similar sometime on an undetermined possible future date.

9secondkox2 said:

So apple benefits from the panic buy now. Then when September hits and things have cooled a bit, apple benefits again from upgraders? Highly possible. Be interesting to revisit in 5 months. 

Very few buying now are going to buy again just 5 months. This is demand that is being pulled forward. 

mikethemartian said:

What they could do is not increase prices at all and instead when someone goes to make a purchase have a tariff surcharge so the customer knows who exactly is to blame for the price hike.

Many companies wouldn’t want to give consumers that level of transparency. There will be many consumer-facing companies with pricing power that will use this as an opportunity to raise prices higher than the actual cost of the tariffs (and use the loud noise around the tariffs to hide that fact from consumers).

A similar thing happened (/is still happening) during the inflation crisis. Companies raised prices higher than the actual cost of inflation. And those companies did their best to hide that fact from the consumers they were price-gouging (while trumpeting that same price-gouging on earnings conference calls with financial analysts).

Don’t get me wrong: Most companies do not want this tariff war. But since a tariff war is we have, companies will do what companies typically do. Some companies are going to raise prices higher than the cost of the tariffs and they won’t want us to know.

aslam said:

The top of the article says that prices would rise in the US and elsewhere. I’m struggling with rationalizing the “and elsewhere” part of it. I see how prices would have to rise for American consumers because tariffs would apply on products produced in China, but why would prices rise for those outside of the US? If I’m not mistaken, most of Apple’s product like iPads, Macs and iPhones are assembled in China with parts manufactured entirely outside the US. So that product, when sold to a Canadian or European, should cost the same as before, should it not? Canada hasn’t levied new tariffs on Chinese-made products or on parts from India, Taiwan, etc., so shouldn’t the price remain the same for Apple to produce the product in China and then sell it in Canada or Europe? Maybe I’m missing something or some element of the supply chain. Can someone elaborate on this for me?

Despite the “America doesn’t manufacture things anymore” narrative said by some people, America actually does make things in the United States. There are iPhone components that are made by American companies and manufactured in America (as well by non-American companies with manufacturing in America).

Gorilla Glass, as a notable example, is a product of the American company Corning and is manufactured in Kentucky, USA (with other manufacturing facilities throughout the world). If countries slap retaliatory tariffs on made in the USA products (without any exceptions), it could increase the cost of Gorilla Glass manufactured in Kentucky (and sold and shipped to companies in non-American countries).

Additionally, there are memory component companies with manufacturing facilities in America. There are radio frequency chip component companies with manufacturing facilities in America. Etcetera and so on.

Some people incorrectly think that “global supply chain” is code for “Asia-only supply chain”. But It’s truly a global supply chain (and that includes the United States).