Misleading title. Since growth was 10% and this accounted for 1 point, it means 90% of the increase was NOT consumers “scrambling to beat tariffs.”
10% of Apple's increase in sales was due to external government factors. What is misleading about that? Apple's sales *were* boosted (albeit temporarily) by buyers worried about future price increases. The flip side to this is that sales will likely be slightly lower in future quarters than they would have otherwise been, as consumers accelerated their purchases, much as an aggressive end of month sale at the mall can generate large sales volume at the expense of sales the following weeks.
This isn't just happening with phones, by the way, it's happening across the board with electronics, clothing, and even household goods (think anything sold in a Dollar Tree). TV sales have increased rapidly. If you are considering buying a TV, phone, or appliance, why not lock in the current price today instead of paying 20% more for it in 6 months?
This seems like low information speculation about politics.
Do you have some reason to believe tariffs affected sales by more than, or less than 10%? Tim Cook is the one directly quoted in the article. If you know more than he does about what caused a change in Apple's sales, please provide the evidence, otherwise it is unbased speculation.
Seems like a political article with a sales number attached to it.
Governmental and regulatory concerns are part of corporate operations, and firms as large as Apple have entire divisions allocated to this area.
Are you suggesting Apple should ignore government policy? Or are you saying consumers are wrong for accelerating their purchases because of the uncertainty of future tariffs on prices? Either way, regardless of what you "wish" for, consumers accelerated some purchases to avoid tariffs, and Apple took steps to avoid them as well, as posted above by
@Justin Cymbal . Looks like smart economic practice on both parts.
I'm curious what people who are critical of this think consumers should do, when faced with the possibility of a new tax of up to 25% on imports? Wait and pay hundreds more once the tariffs kick in? Saving money is now bad somehow? Really scratching my head on this one.
