Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is Now the Time to Upgrade Apple Devices Before Tariffs Lead to Price Increases?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Why do I feel that, internationally, iPhone prices will increase to help Americans absorb the tariff increases?
From policies the polar opposite of Trumps? You mean capitalism? That's what his party wants. The left are the ones that want the U.S to become a socialist country, which will weaken our dollar even more. What are you even talking about that the EU has GDP approaching the U.S? The EU isn't even in the top 5. The U.S has 10x the trading volume as the EU.
What country is afraid of the EU's military? and what is the EU's military budget? That is why Ukraine asked for our help. What countries can the EU military physically take over?
Let me guess, you voted for the senile old fart's nominee?
You think Trump’s trade policies are in line with the last 80 years?
First of all what does that have to do with trade, and second of all the “left” in the US just mostly wants more social programs like we already have (universal healthcare to complement social security for example). There is no functional far left in the US politically, by global standards dems are center/center-right with small center-left progressive wing and the GOP is far right. There is absolutely zero chance of a socialist government in the US.
The EU’s GDP is 20T, the US’ is 27T, China is next after the US and EU at 18T. No other country or trade bloc even breaks 10T after that
Governments having debt isnt bankruptcy, and a government doesnt function like a business. US debt is backed by being one of the largest countries in the world, with a massive amount of resources, influence, industry, manufacturing (yes, still. We are still the second largest manufacturer in the world), etc. The US isnt bankrupt, and the government could raise funds rather easily to handle debt service and more more easily by raising the tax rates on the wealthy back to where they were decades ago instead of giving billionaires even bigger tax breaks.
Governments borrow so they can invest in things that grow the economy; infrastructure, education, social services, etc. if the borrowing goes there it repays itself massively. Tax breaks for billionaires and then loading up on debt to cover it, as Trump’s financial plans do, doesnt help invest. Trickle down economics doesnt work and never has.
So tldr the problem isnt debt, but there is a problem with how trump wants to spend it
By stiffing contractors and investors. We *really* dont want the federal government to do that.
Last edited:
Vance is backed by Thiel, an accelerationist who wants democracy to end. If you haven't already, look up Curtis Yarvin, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Land and the so-called Dark Enlightenment.
Yarvin, one of the most sociopathic CS grads to ever exist (and that's saying a lot) believes, among other incredibly racist, sexist and ableist things, not that the botching of Reconstruction is what left us with the festering scab that we've never fully confronted, but that the solution to America's problems is replacing democracy with a tech CEO who rules as absolute monarch.
I'm of the view that the plan all along has been to skirt Vance's unpopularity by riding Trump to office, then declaring him incompetent .. using the very mechanism he touts as a path to a third term as the means to installing Vance.
There is evidence that all the executive orders being signed now are being authored by the Heritage Foundation, and all of these actions are Project 2025... Trump really believes that he is still useful to them now that they are dismantling government. He doesn't see the writing on the wall that the next thing they plan to dismantle is the Presidency itself.
I’ll agree with you that that was the plan, but I’m willing to bet that Thiel and co both underestimated Trump’s weird animal magnetism for angry conservatives that gives him the grip on the republican party that he has and just how unpopular Vance is. They know if Trump were removed Vance couldnt control the GOP. I also dont think Thiel and co expected how much of a chaos monkey Musk would be. He’s just as bad as those folks, but not on the same team, he’s just playing for himself
While they’re definitely getting a lot of the horrific project 2025 stuff going I think the even darker democracy —> pure tech oligarchy thing is getting derailed by Musk’s rampaging through the govt and Trump’s somehow terrifying and yet completely laughably stupid at the same time attempts at fascism
Even then, they weren't; unless you are thinking of the stuff Wozniak built in that garage. My early Macs were built in Ireland if they are to be believed. Even IBM offshored a bit of its manufacturing back then. Actually, IBM built at least one of Apple's laptops and that was not in the US either.
That is inevitably what happens when poorer countries develop and prosper. They price themselves out of that manufacturing tier into value added market sectors and offshore what they used to do, as China is already doing. That was even before any talk of tariffs.
It is happening already. If you put barriers up on trading with other countries, they will be less inclined to hold any of your currency. Case in point, Japan is dumping the dollar as we speak. Japan!
Currently, these countries hold a lot of US debt:
Japan $1trn.
China $759bn
UK $723bn
Trump tariffed them all; even the UK with which the US has a positive trading balance.
Brushing away facts conspiracy-theory style.
Why should he backtrack from supporting Trump's trade policies?
Are there any credible sources at all that Buffett supported Trump's current trade policies in the first place?
(Although I readily concede Buffett years ago proposed measures to restore trade balance not that much different).
Nonsense.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD
That's a brilliant idea. In fact, replace Apple Intelligence with TI. It wouldn't even require a LLM. A VSLM (Very Small Language Model) would do. Could even run on a iPod Shuffle.
If you know the Market, then you know that is can drop precipitously very quickly, but recovery can be very slow. Sometimes years.
Oh the irony that Trump is against reselling products made overseas as that is where almost all of the swag he sells for his campaign is from.
Not read all 21 pages, but as a European citizen I suppose the Apple prices won’t change? If it’s about import tariffs *to the US* only, all other countries should remain unaffected.
This could raise black market and grey import practices though. iPhones shipped directly to Canada from china or India can pass the US border easily.
This could raise black market and grey import practices though. iPhones shipped directly to Canada from china or India can pass the US border easily.
Agreed. Probably best to wait for the US built iPhone in the late 2030's. That should only be 49% dearer then the iPhone with 30% extra added you won't pay now. By then everything will have gone up and it wont seem that bad.
Lots of anger. American exceptionalism, is a young concept, only existing after 1945. You would have to be extremely ignorant or arrogant to think the world is going to sit around and be s@@@ on by the US for ever and a day and that is not going to cause a shift in money, investment, new trading blocks and military and political influence. I guess you have a bigger FAFO moment to learn.
I'm not buying anything I don't need right now. During a depression, demand pretty much dries up on non-essentials like the latest electronics, and prices come down. Apple is resistant to price cuts, but authorized resellers with unsold stock will discount to maintain cash flow. As people lose their jobs, demand slacks even more, forcing further price cuts. At some point, vendors will be forced to cut more staff, decreasing demand even more as out-of-work people don't buy luxury items, and have to make things last. So in mid-to-long term, the trade war happening now won't increase prices. Short term, sure. And that's about Trump's attention span. In 2 years, the pain he's inflicting on his base will turn them against him, and their representatives in Congress will have to desert Trump's sinking ship. Then the mid-term elections will turn against the GOP, and the stalemate in government will allow private sector entities to make plans for the future. At that point, the nadir of this mess, I think I may start looking. But not at phones. At growth and dividend paying stocks.
I still have TP stocks left over from the pandemic!
So both of you guys discount the effect that a Great Recession is going to have on demand as people lose their jobs and can't buy discretionary items anymore because they need food and medicine. Prices on those nonessentials in the next year will inevitably collapse. You won't have to wait until 2030. If you keep your jobs.
You'd think, but corporations who want to remain profitable during downturns don't base their pricing on landed costs. They base them on replacement costs. That means they raise prices in advance of raised costs. You can expect just about everything you need and want is going to increase immediately if not sooner. Apple has a mutibillion dollar cash cushion, so you may have a point on Apple. But are you sure your job is secure during a severe global recession or depression? Should you be buying discretionary goods right now? I'd wait on anything I don't need until at least November 2026, when I can see if Congress switches sides and can thwart Trump's most damaging ideas.
Ripe time for apple to open some apple stores just over the canadian border.
I love how bad a loser you guys are hahahahahah
Trump is your president, and will be for the next years.
He hasn't touched any social benefit, and inflation is trending down since he took power.
Biden had an 8,52% inflation and no one said a word. Lets wait the end of his term to talk about the numbers.
Trump is your president, and will be for the next years.
He hasn't touched any social benefit, and inflation is trending down since he took power.
Biden had an 8,52% inflation and no one said a word. Lets wait the end of his term to talk about the numbers.
No, it’s the near borderline psychiatric illness level hatred of anything not progressively left, or Trump. It’s puzzling nobody cares other countries have placed massive tariffs on us for decades. So long as we can get our less expensive yearly upgraded tech, no matter how corrupt, lopsided trade deals are, we look the other way.
Let me guess, MSNBC, The View, CNN tell you that? I mean come on. This is absurdity lol.
The whole EU economy is smaller than the US, China's is smaller as well.
Now with the tariffs, the US will fix the balance of the economy.