Other Does the prospect of tariff iPhone price increases 'worry' you?

[thadoggfather]

Pretty ironic.

Chinese consumers will soon be able to buy an iPhone for less than what U.S. consumers pay.

The current price of iPhone XS/XR is the same in both countries. Just a few months ago, Apple lowered their prices in China to stimulate demand. The VAT on foreign smartphone brands was also lowered by the government. On the other hand, the U.S. is about to increase tariffs. It really shows which country is the unreasonable party.

Well the things are made in China so you reduce on shipping and exports and handle it “in house”

Hadn’t thought about that tho, reduced price Xr is already cheaper than US. If there is a price increase, it will be even cheaper in China

The reverse could hold tho possibly if US made iPhones and sold iphones. Apple could
Potentially capture more margin and maintain high prices without increasing them. Or lower them and draw in more sales since price is the big turn off for most
People to upgrade all the time. Many ways to see it imo

I like this thread ! Keep the comments and poll votes coming

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Well the things are made in China so you reduce on shipping and exports and handle it “in house”

Hadn’t thought about that tho, reduced price Xr is already cheaper than US. If there is a price increase, it will be even cheaper in China

The reverse could hold tho possibly if US made iPhones and sold iphones. Apple could
Potentially capture more margin and maintain high prices without increasing them. Or lower them and draw in more sales since price is the big turn off for most
People to upgrade all the time. Many ways to see it imo

I like this thread ! Keep the comments and poll votes coming

You’d have a lot more than a $100 price increase if Apple moved their supply chain and manufacturing to the US.

They are not going to absorb billions in relocation fees to deliver you lower priced iPhones and especially as you’ve been paying around $100-150 less than the rest of the western world anyway up until this point.

 

[MorphMan]

The reverse could hold tho possibly if US made iPhones and sold iphones

There have been studies on this. It's basically impossible due to the huge numbers of staff required.

They are starting to make them in India though.

 

[iapplelove]

I plan on keeping my iPhone X until it breaks or Apple stops updates. So I’m not worried.

 

[thadoggfather]

There have been studies on this. It's basically impossible due to the huge numbers of staff required.

They are starting to make them in India though.

It should be stated everything I'm going to say is opinion not fact, because this isn't my area of expertise and I do this for fun, not as a function of my job or otherwise. I simply speculate but I would maintain most if not all others chiming in are doing just the same, which is completely fine, but just to give perspective wanted to be transparent about that

Anyways...

The problem with studies (nevermind just saying 'they're out there') are they are just that, studies, and depends on the study but sometimes they aren’t impartial and are created by design to confirm what they wanted to confirm in the first place. Like statistics, can be great and invaluable but can also be totally useless gaslighting if you don’t have the right sample size and standard deviations dialed in and intelligible margin of error ; if there’s not specific criteria virtually anything can be spun one way or the other.

I say it can be at least attempted, as academic world isn’t always translatable to reality

I’m not saying it can definitely be done, but one has to try in order to find out. After years of fumbling on projects like AirPower and so far the car, I think Apple has enough cash reserve to give another risk a try that has also real potential (and could of course be a failure, of courseeee, but real potential in the same way Henry Ford pioneered assembly lines for Ford cars here in USA back in the 1910's ) without any serious detriment to their financial health *if* they simply had the will which I’m not at all convinced they do as Tim never talks about how he would love to get there, he just talks about how it comes down to specialized labor in China which is hard to find elsewhere which wreaks of total BS to me.

Certainly even if the complicated PCB assembly process and iDevice manufacturing is not remotely possible in USA, SOMETHING must be able to be made here like even watch bands. I don’t believe not a single one of apple’s infinite product line of products and accessories can’t be made in USA because of the very nature of being Apple. I just don't.
[doublepost=1558010075][/doublepost]

You’d have a lot more than a $100 price increase if Apple moved their supply chain and manufacturing to the US.

They are not going to absorb billions in relocation fees to deliver you lower priced iPhones and especially as you’ve been paying around $100-150 less than the rest of the western world anyway up until this point.

Its called a long term investment. Investments require upfront capital. And they wouldn't be subject to the tariff increase hurdle if they made them 'in house' so there's that. And they would be adding jobs and stimulating the US economy even further, rather than strengthening our dependence on China and creating an even bigger gap between what we import and export. And it wouldn't necessarily be lower priced iPhones, knowing Apple, it would be maintained prices with even higher margins (over time). I'm just saying if price elasticity of iPhone consumers is becoming rather inflexible at the highest price tiers (which it seems to be, after the X novelty wore off as a 'one time deal') Apple has even more margin to play with, not to be kind and cut Apple fans a break, but to secure more sales instead of scaling back production due to manufacturing too many units that sit unsold on inventory shelves and become even less desirable when the next generation comes out. Different ways of looking at it.

I'll admit I've never even remotely understood the economics behind astronomical iPhone prices in most of the world (barring places like Brazil where everything imported is astronomically expensive) except that they can do it, and it seems like international iOS market share suffers as a result of it, so this is something I can't really even pretend to speak to how that one works. All I can say is it's a bummer for Apple and consumers.


Also how can Dell make computers in USA, where most of their business is even BTO options (at least was back in the day, the 90s), but Apple can't even give it a shot? What gives?

Look at an article like this, dated back in 2013 and referring to LENOVO no less-

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/l...ers-north-carolina-facility/story?id=19334715

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

It should be stated everything I'm going to say is opinion not fact, because this isn't my area of expertise and I do this for fun, not as a function of my job or otherwise. I simply speculate but I would maintain most if not all others chiming in are doing just the same, which is completely fine, but just to give perspective wanted to be transparent about that

Anyways...

The problem with studies (nevermind just saying 'they're out there') are they are just that, studies, and depends on the study but sometimes they aren’t impartial and are created by design to confirm what they wanted to confirm in the first place. Like statistics, can be great and invaluable but can also be totally useless gaslighting if you don’t have the right sample size and standard deviations dialed in and intelligible margin of error ; if there’s not specific criteria virtually anything can be spun one way or the other.

I say it can be at least attempted, as academic world isn’t always translatable to reality

I’m not saying it can definitely be done, but one has to try in order to find out. After years of fumbling on projects like AirPower and so far the car, I think Apple has enough cash reserve to give another risk a try that has also real potential (and could of course be a failure, of courseeee, but real potential in the same way Henry Ford pioneered assembly lines for Ford cars here in USA back in the 1910's ) without any serious detriment to their financial health *if* they simply had the will which I’m not at all convinced they do as Tim never talks about how he would love to get there, he just talks about how it comes down to specialized labor in China which is hard to find elsewhere which wreaks of total BS to me.

Certainly even if the complicated PCB assembly process and iDevice manufacturing is not remotely possible in USA, SOMETHING must be able to be made here like even watch bands. I don’t believe not a single one of apple’s infinite product line of products and accessories can’t be made in USA because of the very nature of being Apple. I just don't.
[doublepost=1558010075][/doublepost]

Its called a long term investment. Investments require upfront capital. And they wouldn't be subject to the tariff increase hurdle if they made them 'in house' so there's that. And they would be adding jobs and stimulating the US economy even further, rather than strengthening our dependence on China and creating an even bigger gap between what we import and export. And it wouldn't necessarily be lower priced iPhones, knowing Apple, it would be maintained prices with even higher margins (over time). I'm just saying if price elasticity of iPhone consumers is becoming rather inflexible at the highest price tiers (which it seems to be, after the X novelty wore off as a 'one time deal') Apple has even more margin to play with, not to be kind and cut Apple fans a break, but to secure more sales instead of scaling back production due to manufacturing too many units that sit unsold on inventory shelves and become even less desirable when the next generation comes out. Different ways of looking at it.

I'll admit I've never even remotely understood the economics behind astronomical iPhone prices in most of the world (barring places like Brazil where everything imported is astronomically expensive) except that they can do it, and it seems like international iOS market share suffers as a result of it, so this is something I can't really even pretend to speak to how that one works. All I can say is it's a bummer for Apple and consumers.


Also how can Dell make computers in USA, where most of their business is even BTO options (at least was back in the day, the 90s), but Apple can't even give it a shot? What gives?

Look at an article like this, dated back in 2013 and referring to LENOVO no less-

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/l...ers-north-carolina-facility/story?id=19334715

I'm with you 100% on this. Apple was a trillion dollar company this past year so there's no reason they shouldn't be able to build manufacturing plants here in the US. Maybe they hit that mark because they didn't have to pay a fair wage to all of the workers in China but how far can you take that, ethically speaking. Especially with the current state of affairs (trade war).