Why Trump's tariffs risk sending the price of the iPhone skyrocketing
The Cupertino giant has lost more than 300 billion in value on the stock exchange. Its dependence on the Chinese production chain becomes a ballast
2' min read
2' min read
Donald Trump's tariffs have sunk Wall Street and stock markets halfway around the world. Such heavy falls have taken some stocks back to the dark days of the pandemic, or to the black hole of Lemhan Brothers. And among the hardest hit companies is the American giant par excellence: Apple. The queen of Wall Street, the symbol of Californian technological gold, has burned more than 300 billion in market cap in the last two sessions, highlighting the fragility of a business model that is very much tied to countries such as China.
The Cupertino giant, after all, is considered by analysts to be very 'iPhone-centric', i.e. viscerally linked to the sales of its iPhones. Smartphones that, after all, have made Apple's fortune over the last (almost) two decades.
But the tariffs flaunted by Trump - to which China has already responded by imposing counter-duties of 34% - directly impact the business of Apple and other American companies that are highly exposed, productively, to countries subject to the duties.
And that is why now, an iPhone, in the US, is likely to be $500 more expensive.
The extra costs to which companies will be subjected will reasonably be passed on to the pockets of consumers. And the Reuters agency estimates a significant increase in iPhone prices, with increases of up to 43 per cent. This could take the base model of the iPhone 16 from $799 to around $1,142, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max could rise from $1,599 to almost $2,300.
