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Report: Apple Airlifted Premium Devices to US to Beat Tariff Deadline

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Apple urgently requested suppliers to ship as many premium devices as possible to the United States by air freight, especially those priced above $3,000, in response to President Donald Trump's announcement of "reciprocal" tariffs of up to 104% on trading partners (via Nikkei).

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Apple, along with Dell, Microsoft, and Lenovo, reportedly scrambled to mitigate the impact of the tariffs by accelerating shipments before April 9, the day the tariffs came into effect.

"We got a call from clients to make as many consumer electronics as possible and to ship as many of them by air as possible," said an executive at a supplier to Apple, Microsoft, and Google. "But the biggest challenge is that we don't have so many components and materials in stock."

The last-minute rush has created logistical challenges, with suppliers struggling to fulfill orders due to component shortages and tight shipping deadlines. All customs clearances had to be completed before midnight on April 8, U.S. time, creating what one international air shipping manager described as "a race against the clock."

The action comes as Chinese exports on Wednesday faced their biggest U.S. tariff of 104%. This is a combination of 20% levied earlier, 34% announced last week, and 50% imposed by Trump hours earlier following Beijing's refusal to withdraw a retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods.

Apple has been evaluating various strategies to minimize the impact of Trump's tariffs. The company has been diversifying its manufacturing base for years, with India becoming an increasingly important production hub.

A recent report suggests Apple plans to source more iPhones for the U.S. market from India, where tariffs are set at 26% compared to the 104% tariff on goods from China. The company expects to produce approximately 25 million iPhones in India this year, potentially meeting around 50% of U.S. iPhone demand in 2025.

The tariff situation has already had a substantial impact on Apple's stock, which has fallen nearly 23% since last Wednesday, as investors worry about the potential effects on the company's profits and global supply chain.

Apple CEO Tim Cook successfully secured exemptions for Apple devices during Trump's first term, but he faces bigger challenges this time around. The company now appears to be pursuing a dual strategy of short-term logistics adjustments while seeking longer-term political solutions.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Report: Apple Airlifted Premium Devices to US to Beat Tariff Deadline
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/09/apple-airlifted-premium-devices-to-us/
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Reactions: decypher44, purplefox, Mescagnus and 4 others
This is perfectly understandable, even economically sensible from Apple's POV.

But still, it’s somewhat hilarious, absurd even, when you take a step back.

I can almost hear the Benny Hill "Yakety Sax" theme playing over sped-up footage of warehouse employees dashing around, exhausted, trying to locate every last shippable item from every nook and cranny. That kind of last-minute, high-priority scramble is no joke. I can see how it would take its toll on people in the supply and manufacturing chain who have to make it all magically and instantly happen.


 
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Reactions: schneeland, progx, MarkIII and 6 others
And this is why mass production of electronics in the US or Europe isn’t a viable option. In China, they can scale up production within days. A German CEO once put it perfectly when describing why China’s manufacturing hubs are unrivaled:

“You want to alter your design and change a screw from this size to that? They’ve got you covered in a day. Need an extra five million screws? The supplier is just down the road. Need ten million springs to update your product? They’ll find a supplier and deliver them within two days.”

This simply isn’t possible in Europe. It’s hard to imagine how well-trained the workforce is, how eager they are to fulfill orders, how close everything is, and how big and fast they can scale—almost instantly. That’s also the reason why production is so cheap: speed, scale, and proximity drive costs down in a way that’s nearly impossible to replicate elsewhere.
 
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SBlue1 said:
This simply isn’t possible in Europe. It’s hard to imagine how well-trained the workforce is, how eager they are to fulfill orders, how close everything is, and how big and fast they can scale—almost instantly. That’s also the reason why production is so cheap: speed, scale, and proximity drive costs down in a way that’s nearly impossible to replicate elsewhere.
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It would be possible if only there was a population you could force to work under slave-like conditions for practically no money. 🤷
 
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decafjava said:
He's morally bankrupt as well, then again so are most leaders these days including Orange Man's predecessors.

I'm wondering if those of us in Europe will have to pay much more for Apple as well, and I need to replace my iMac this year.
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Well our tariffs for chinese import remain the same. So unless apple decides to offset the increase in US prices by increasing the prices globally, I don’t think there is a whole lot of reasons to pay more.
 
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Reactions: Mescagnus, Lyrics23, lionel77 and 2 others
I would have thought it was more sensible to bulk import the cheaper, baseline items. Someone who can drop $3k on a laptop can likely stretch to $4-5k, but someone who might buy a $1k laptop is unlikely to pay $1.5-2k.
 
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decafjava said:
He's morally bankrupt as well, then again so are most leaders these days including Orange Man's predecessors.

I'm wondering if those of us in Europe will have to pay much more for Apple as well, and I need to replace my iMac this year.
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If you read the Nikkei article, there’s no reason to upgrade early. Most companies are expecting to sell less in the U.S. and will be focusing on Asia and Europe this year. They’ll count on aggressive pricing to make up for lost U.S. sales.
 
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Arctic Moose said:
It would be possible if only there was a population you could force to work under slave-like conditions for practically no money. 🤷
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Well there is that
And plus for it to possibly come back to Europe or America you would need the workers so they can build to scale for example I believe Apple sell about 250 million iPhones a year worldwide & 95% are made in china
There is no way on earth that amount could get made in the US without machines doing it.
 
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Apple could ship products to Canada, or better still, to Greenland, and then see if Trump has the political nous not to impose increased tariffs on these items, as he wants to take these places over.
 
Madonepro said:
Apple could ship products to Canada, or better still, to Greenland, and then see if Trump has the political nous not to impose increased tariffs on these items, as he wants to take these places over.
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Tariffs are applied based on the country of origin and not the intermediary country you move the goods through. So this would not get around the tariffs unless Apple commits fraud by declaring the goods were manufactured in Canada when they were not.
 
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kiranmk2 said:
I would have thought it was more sensible to bulk import the cheaper, baseline items. Someone who can drop $3k on a laptop can likely stretch to $4-5k, but someone who might buy a $1k laptop is unlikely to pay $1.5-2k.
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Americans would still buy a $1,999 base model MacBook Air if they do a loan. But a $5,999 MacBook Pro or Vision Pro kills any interest, assuming they even qualify for financing.
 
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Reactions: Ruftzooi, Mescagnus, amartinez1660 and 1 other person
robd003 said:
Everyone seems to forget that the whole point of instituting tariffs is that they're RECIPROCOL.

The goal is to get everyone to say, "hey let's just do 0% and let free trade work"
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Nobody forgot. The tariff formula defined by the current regime says it’s not. They said it was based on trade deficits. And you literally have countries like Australia which always had 0% who now end up with 10% “reciprocal.”
 
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Reactions: TwistedMetal-II, hans1972, Moonjumper and 15 others
Did Corning airlift their ceramic shields to China? Otherwise they will be subject to a 34% tariff, to be assembled and returned to the US (as part of an iPhone) subject to another 104% tariff.

Apple may decide to use a cheaper local supplier for screen protection rather than pay the extra. It may well make Corning uncompetitive and result in a loss of jobs in the US.

What a world we live in 🤔
 
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