But isn't the most important reason the simple fact that with those tariffs a hundred million Americans would not be able to afford an iPhone any more?
Go explain your voters- that voted you because you promised to improve their life and make them rich- why they cannot afford one of their most beloved items anymore (while Chinese and European still can!)
Which is the same reason for the continued postponing of the TikTok ban: it would cause a collapse in government rating such as it's probably never been seen before.
dtagames 7 days ago [-]
I also think this is the reason. It's like someone woke up and realized we don't make electronics in the US and it only punishes American consumers to raise prices for them.
We could make everything electronic here. Those industries were invented here and all their original plants were in Silicon Valley (and Texas), the same tech hotspots we have today.
Can we incentivize companies to build here again? I don't buy the "labor is too expensive" argument. The savings from offshoring went to profits, not lower prices.
Making things in America and selling them here at reasonable prices makes the most sense overall, even if companies have to accept somewhat lower profits to get there.
alwillis 7 days ago [-]
The iPhone has never been made in the United States.
Estimates are the price of a domestically produced iPhone would more than triple.
dtagames 7 days ago [-]
The technology on which it relies was invented here and could be built here again. The consumer cost of an iPhone is due to the extraordinary profits Apple extracts from it. Those profits could pay US labor rates easily.
alwillis 7 days ago [-]
The technology on which it relies was invented here and could be built here again. The consumer cost of an iPhone is due to the extraordinary profits Apple extracts from it. Those profits could pay US labor rates easily.
This is absolutely false.
Yes, semiconductors and microprocessors were invented here but haven't been manufactured in America by American companies in several decades. The primary reason? Cost.
Among other obvious issues, you'd need a workforce of at least 300,000 to 500,000 skilled people to do the final assembly work on iPhones at Apple's scale. There's simply not enough people with the required skills to do that work in the US at almost any price.
That would be like taking a city the size of Boston and have it only do iPhone assembly.
Take a look at "A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy".[1]
I don't believe that it takes 300,000 people to assemble iPhones.
The "cost" argument is a thinly veiled way of saying, "We don't want to pay people in America American wages."
Our contemporary American lifestyle requires commensurate income and Apple and all these other companies can also afford to pay US wages. Just look at the money they give shareholders.
alwillis 7 days ago [-]
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.25 per share of the Company’s common stock.
I don't believe that it takes 300,000 people to assemble iPhones.
Apple and supply chain experts disagree with you. I don't think you understand the massive scale Apple operates at. I mean, it is what it is.
* There are 1.382 billion iPhone users worldwide [1]
* Apple sells about 200 million iPhones per year, including 231 million of them in 2023
'Former Apple manufacturing engineer, Matthew Moore, told Bloomberg that “there are millions of people employed by the Apple supply chain in China,” and Apple has long insisted that the US talent pool is too small to easily replace them.'[3]
Go explain your voters- that voted you because you promised to improve their life and make them rich- why they cannot afford one of their most beloved items anymore (while Chinese and European still can!)
Which is the same reason for the continued postponing of the TikTok ban: it would cause a collapse in government rating such as it's probably never been seen before.
We could make everything electronic here. Those industries were invented here and all their original plants were in Silicon Valley (and Texas), the same tech hotspots we have today.
Can we incentivize companies to build here again? I don't buy the "labor is too expensive" argument. The savings from offshoring went to profits, not lower prices.
Making things in America and selling them here at reasonable prices makes the most sense overall, even if companies have to accept somewhat lower profits to get there.
Estimates are the price of a domestically produced iPhone would more than triple.
This is absolutely false.
Yes, semiconductors and microprocessors were invented here but haven't been manufactured in America by American companies in several decades. The primary reason? Cost.
Among other obvious issues, you'd need a workforce of at least 300,000 to 500,000 skilled people to do the final assembly work on iPhones at Apple's scale. There's simply not enough people with the required skills to do that work in the US at almost any price.
That would be like taking a city the size of Boston and have it only do iPhone assembly.
Take a look at "A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy".[1]
[1]: https://www.404media.co/a-us-made-iphone-is-pure-fantasy/
The "cost" argument is a thinly veiled way of saying, "We don't want to pay people in America American wages."
Our contemporary American lifestyle requires commensurate income and Apple and all these other companies can also afford to pay US wages. Just look at the money they give shareholders.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/01/apple-reports-first-q...
Apple and supply chain experts disagree with you. I don't think you understand the massive scale Apple operates at. I mean, it is what it is.
* There are 1.382 billion iPhone users worldwide [1]
* Apple sells about 200 million iPhones per year, including 231 million of them in 2023
'Former Apple manufacturing engineer, Matthew Moore, told Bloomberg that “there are millions of people employed by the Apple supply chain in China,” and Apple has long insisted that the US talent pool is too small to easily replace them.'[3]
[1]: https://backlinko.com/iphone-users
[2]: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/apple-statistics/
[3]: https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/14/former-apple-engineer-on-why-...