Apple’s cofounder Steve Jobs ( L) and its current CEO Tim Cook. Jobs was the visionary who revolutionized the industry , Cook has overseen a period of unprecedented growth. But Apple has reportedly been using the iPhone as a cash cow , with very little innovation since Jobs passed away. Many analysts believe that Apple has no excuse to make the iPhones outside the US for American consumers and should hire a visionary to expand Apple’s product line . Without innovation Apple could face the fate of the other once-dominant phone makers that have faded in recent years, including Nokia, BlackBerry, LG, and Motorola
President Trump on Friday warned Apple that it needed to build U.S.-sold iPhones in the United States or face a 25% tariff.
Why it matters: Apple already committed to a $500 billion U.S. expansion, but now Trump wants Apple to also make the iPhones in the US for the United States market
- It’s a dramatic escalation with the tech giant, which was reportedly planning to move production from China to India.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump posted to Truth Social.
- “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.,” he added.
Later Friday, Trump suggested the tariff would actually affect all cellphone companies that import into the U.S., as soon as next month.
- “It would be more, it would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “So anybody that makes that product and that’ll start on, I guess, the end of June it’ll come out.”
- Trump also claimed he had “an understanding” with Cook that Apple could not sell India-made iPhones in the U.S. without tariffs.
- White House spokespeople did not immediately return emails for comment.
- Apple did not return a request for comment.
Analysts claim that a U.S.-manufactured iPhone would be prohibitively expensive.
- “For US consumers, the reality of a $1000 iPhone being one of the best-made consumer products on the planet would disappear,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives claimed recently.
- He suggested making iPhones in “New Jersey, or Texas, or another state” would boost their price tag to $3500.
- Other analysts disputed Wedbush’s claim about the price tag which was based on 20 hour labor for assembling one iPhone . They claim that it only takes about 30 minutes to maximum one hour of human hands to put together an iPhone. Even at American wages, that labor would only add $20 to $40 to the cost of each device.
- “That’s a small price to pay for rebuilding an industry, restoring pride in American craftsmanship, and giving jobs to American workers.”The analysts were quoted as saying. They added
- “America should not just be a consumer of high-tech products — it should be the maker of them. If we don’t control the production, we don’t control the future.”
- ” Let Apple lead by example. Let America remember how to build. It’s time to turn “Designed in California” into “Designed and Made in the USA, ” the analysts added
- Axios / YL