Apple Argues Tariff Increase Would Affect Apple Watch, AirPods, Mac Mini, More

Megalith

Megalith

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Apple has voiced their displeasure regarding a new tariff proposal in the US-China trade war, which will reportedly affect many of the company’s products. Bloomberg notes the change would involve accessories such as the Apple Pencil, AirPods, Apple Watch, and even the Mac Mini. According to CEO Tim Cook, tariffs “end up showing themselves as an added tax on consumers.”

Back in April, it was looking like most consumer technology products would be exempt from US tariffs on Chinese goods. While Tim Cook said in the company’s Q3 earnings call “we are hoping that calm heads prevail” the Apple Watch was the only product expected to be hit by the tariffs that will go into effect this fall. Interesting enough, it was looking like just the original Apple Watch was going to see a 10% tariff.
 
YES THAT IS THE EXACT POINT OF A TARIFF. then the consumer ideally says to themselves "im not gonna buy that its too expensive", and the seller adjusts to not have its materials be subject to tariffs. Now, tariffs are almost always bad, and these tariffs are stupid. The positive is that maybe more americans will realize how many of our trade deals are lobsided in the favor of other countries. Past presidents didnt even try, every trade deal has been a handout to another ally or country.
 
Well.... Waiting for the argument of ' they will just pass it on to the customers' blah blah blah.. when the argument is made corporations should pay more taxes.... No no no ' cause its a TRUMP tax, it HAS to be awesome somehow...
 
BSmith said:
If they do not want to be subject to it, then move the manufacturing back to the U.S.

Hehe,....yeah....that'll happen.
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Yea sure. Then the iphone will be another 1000 bucks. lol! What you don't realize is Apple does involve alot of companies that are from the U.S in manufacturing. Please read up on how it works. They source billions in parts from American companies even if its built in China. They are just doing it their because its cheap labor there. That is just a part of it.

China has alot of U.S corporations embedded there. Like restaurants, sporting goods, phones. If you flipped it the other way around where Chinese companies were taking over America people would lose their shit lol!

Its well known tarrifs never benefit the consumer. You never know what the hell is going to come out of tariffs.

It amazes me how people think it is ssoooooo easy to manufacture everything in the U.S! As nice as it sounds if the economics don't make sense for a company they won't do it.
 
Apple's not the only company to say this. According to this BBC News article Dell, Cisco, Juniper Networks, and Hewlett Packard also agree that their prices will rise with these tariffs.
 
These tariffs will not only cause prices to rise for computer components but for just about every thing in your house. Everything from alarm clocks to beds, coffee makers, TVs, gaming consoles, RAM, video cards, etc. Just about anything with a circuit board, magnet, battery, or electric motor is going to see prices go through the freakin' roof.

If you think that prices for household goods are expensive now, just you wait. These tariffs are going to crater this economy!!! Just about every damn thing you have in your house is made in China and will be subject to these tariffs.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
So you approve of dehumanizing communist slave labor in the service of cheaper consumer goods. Gotcha.
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I never knew people were forced to work to build iphones? May be we should give them credit because they tend to be hard workers not lazy couch potatoes.
 
harbingerofdoom said:
there is. its called "pass those increases on to the consumer"
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That's not gonna happen. If as a consumer my limit to buying a phone is $400, then I'll buy whatever is $400. If the phone is now $500, I ain't gonna buy it, and Apple knows it. So either Apple makes the cheaper tier phone $400 or they eat the cost. More than likely they'll eat the cost cause I'm not gonna buy a crappy phone for that price when I can just go Android. Plus there's the used market as well which isn't effected by these Tariffs.

It's a really shitty situation for Apple, but not so much for the consumer.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
So you approve of dehumanizing communist slave labor in the service of cheaper consumer goods. Gotcha.
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So does most of the US, pretty much why you have the problems you have. By in large you'd rather buy cheaper from elsewhere than expensive from home.
 
Meh, I've learned to be wary of anything that comes with an "i" in front of it:

 
trparky said:
If you think that prices for household goods are expensive now, just you wait. These tariffs are going to crater this economy!!! Just about every damn thing you have in your house is made in China and will be subject to these tariffs.
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What if you are old enough to remember when the relative cost, and even in a number of cases the absolute cost, was higher to much higher than it is today for those goods?
 
People in this thread are really hung up on the Apple thing....(plus making the same old Facebook jokes/logical fallacies without actually saying anything useful). This is way bigger than just Apple. Who knows where's it's going to go and honestly tariffs can have a nasty effect on the economy.

e.g. We've been here before, with Pres G W Bush:

On March 5, 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush placed tariffs on imported steel. The tariffs took effect March 20 and were lifted by Bush on December 4, 2003. Research shows that the tariffs adversely affected US GDP and employment.[1]
...
The economy-wide analysis was designed to focus on the impacts that arose from the relative price changes resulting from the imposition of the tariffs, and estimated that the impact of the tariffs on the U.S. welfare ranged between a gain of $65.6 million (0.0006% of GDP) to a loss of $110.0 million (0.0011% of GDP), "with a central estimate of a welfare loss of $41.6 million." A majority of steel-consuming businesses reported that neither continuing nor ending the tariffs would change employment, international competitiveness, or capital investment.[10]
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DukenukemX said:
That's not gonna happen. If as a consumer my limit to buying a phone is $400, then I'll buy whatever is $400. If the phone is now $500, I ain't gonna buy it, and Apple knows it. So either Apple makes the cheaper tier phone $400 or they eat the cost. More than likely they'll eat the cost cause I'm not gonna buy a crappy phone for that price when I can just go Android. Plus there's the used market as well which isn't effected by these Tariffs.

It's a really shitty situation for Apple, but not so much for the consumer.
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I dunno, people are happily buying $1200 video cards. With all the cash they're sitting on I bet they'll gladly see what consumers will actually still pay before considering an alternative.
 
Moving the production to US is not possible, unless Americans will be willing to work for $400 a month for 160 hours.
 
Those fruit people,,,,,, they could just make a tiny itsy bitchy cut in their own earnings :p

I would like to thank the fruit company for starting the smart phone fab, thanks to them stupid people kill them self daily, and some even take som innocent bastard with them to the grave.
I drove 20 km today behind a phone junkie, needless to say i kept a little bigger distance than normal to the car in front of me.
 
Understand this could affect many different companies, but Apple?

I've been to a few of their events - Apple's products aren't manufactured anywhere. They're so advanced and shiny they are mass materialized from a more advanced future dimension. That's why their products demand a premium - maintaining a ($200) $1 billion trans-dimensional-design ring isn't cheap.
 
phawkins633 said:
Perhaps a lower markup for Apple products? Problem solved.......
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True.

The market will decide. Cook thinks it'll be passed on to consumers. This is true when it's an industry wide tariff, such as steel production - consumers can't get around the tariff in that instance. If it's a tariff that affects one companies products more, the company will have to absorb some of that tariff cost (less margin) to compete with the companies that aren't hit by it.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
So you approve of dehumanizing communist slave labor in the service of cheaper consumer goods. Gotcha.
Click to expand...

Not sure if you ever been to Foxconn in China, it's nowhere near what media proclaim it to be.

The suicide issue was due to huge benefits gain for the family, so they decided to take that route.

Apple required supplier to maintain proper working environments, and constantly send people to their 3rd party manufacture to check.

Should check up with Samsung, their factory is the shit hole of all, and somehow never caught into news in the state......o_O
 
phawkins633 said:
Perhaps a lower markup for Apple products? Problem solved.......
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Apple's markup for iPhones historically has been about +200% - $649 iPhone 7 estimated to cost Apple ~$220

So let's say there's a new 50% tarriff - cost goes to $330, so markup drops to a mere 100%.

But Apple will raise prices anyway.
iPhone users (according to the ones I know) don't want to learn a different phone.
They're locked in, and Apple can screw them until they bleed.
 
Disco_Stu_04 said:
People in this thread are really hung up on the Apple thing....(plus making the same old Facebook jokes/logical fallacies without actually saying anything useful). This is way bigger than just Apple. Who knows where's it's going to go and honestly tariffs can have a nasty effect on the economy.

e.g. We've been here before, with Pres G W Bush: *snip*
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Never be afraid to repeat the same mistakes over and over, a little harder every time. Just to see how much it takes to reach joyous, catastrophic failure.
 
I could give two flying f's about Apple's cost of manufacturing, but these tariffs are screwing with companies that are domestic manufacturers. There are a lot things, that are made in China and used for domestic manufacturing... things we don't want made here because we are still cleaning up the waste from when they were made here. Bringing manufacturing for a lot of items back to the US isn't a reality that we would want or should even be considered. While I agree that China's tariffs are ridiculous and need to be dealt with, this should have been done by giving companies economic incentives to move manufacturing and material sourcing to countries like Vietnam or Thailand over the next 5 years. Playing chicken is just f'n with domestic manufacturer's purchasing and supply chains, which will have effects well after Trump's time in office.
 
A simple question: Could we now manufacture and field thousands of tanks and airplanes on relatively short notice like we did during WWII?

Maybe that is a pointless question in the age of nuclear weaponry, but I'd feel a lot better knowing we could still kick the world's ass in a protracted conventional war if need be.
 
We have thousands of tanks and airplanes sitting mothballed in fields, so we wouldn't really have to build any new ones. In fact we build stuff and send it straight to mothball because of contracts that Congress won't let the Pentagon cancel. It isn't so much about tanks and planes, but how war is waged. We wouldn't wage war against China with tanks... maybe some planes and ships, but the notion of landing infantry in China is laughable.
 
If they want to avoid taxes, maybe they should move the rest of their production to the Republic of Ireland, too?
 
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