At one point there were veneration that President Trump ’s Chinese tariff would result in turgid iPhone price rises , with in high spirits - end models potentially costingas much as $ 2,150 . In fact , Apple won anexemptionand we have n’t seen any price uprise at all . Yet .
In an otherwise extremely positiveQ2 financial reportThursday , Apple let out that it expects to face a armorial bearing of $ 900 million next tail as a result of tariff natural process , don the tariff do n’t exchange . That ’s not a vast figure for a society as big as Apple , but is n’t something it can just disregard .
In discussion following the announcement , CEO Tim Cook concisely answer to guess that the company could be forced to put up prices , and while conservative , his solution advise that this class of action rest a real possibility .
“ On [ pricing ] , ” he said ( via9to5Mac ) , “ we have nothing to announce today . I ’ll just say that the operational squad has done an incredible job around optimize the supply Ernst Boris Chain of the inventorying , and we ’ll patently continue to do those thing to the degree that we can . ”
At first that sound like the sorting of information - light , incontrovertible - tailspin corporate answer we expect to hear at earnings call . Of course Cook does n’t rule out terms rises , because no CEO can live what ’s come .
Still , that phrase at the remnant , “ to the level that we can , ” might be more telltale than he specify . It hint at a recognition of loom upshot . supplying mountain chain optimization has its limit , not least because Apple ’s provision chain of mountains is so huge and complicated and flip from China to India , for case , is not something that can be fulfil quickly . The tariff granting immunity may not last . And Apple is n’t the variety of company to just blithely take in hits to its bottom pedigree without consideringall the options , include price rises .
