{"id":872405,"date":"2025-09-12T00:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/apple-just-got-a-big-win-in-trumps-tariff-war-it-may-have-bigger-concerns\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T00:14:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:14:25","slug":"apple-just-got-a-big-win-in-trumps-tariff-war-it-may-have-bigger-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/apple-just-got-a-big-win-in-trumps-tariff-war-it-may-have-bigger-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple just got a big win in Trump\u2019s tariff war. It may have bigger concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Apple CEO Tim Cook should be breathing a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

The White House on Wednesday ratcheted tariffs on Indian imports up by an additional 25 percent, raising the total levies on one of the United States\u2019 most crucial trading partners to 50 percent when they kick in later this month.<\/p>\n

But smartphones are exempt from President Donald Trump\u2019s new levies on India, marking a crucial win for the tech giant as it approaches its most important time of the year: its annual September iPhone launch followed by the holiday season. Apple will also dodge incoming new tariffs on semiconductors, since it\u2019s committed to building iPhone components in the United States, Trump said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say tariffs won\u2019t hurt; CEO Tim Cook said tariffs will likely cost the company $1.1 billion<\/a> this quarter. But analysts say Apple has bigger concerns, such as its future product strategy and approach to artificial intelligence, a burgeoning field that the tech behemoth is perceived to be behind in.<\/p>\n

Under different circumstances, such high tariffs could have spelled trouble for Apple. The iPhone is Apple\u2019s most important product, making up the majority of its revenue. Most iPhones sold in America come from India<\/a>. And the Americas, which includes the United States, is Apple\u2019s largest market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the longer-term issues, more than a year out, I would say tariffs are probably 20 percent of it,\u201d said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, who has covered Apple for decades. \u201cI think what\u2019s going on the regulatory environments (is) probably 25 percent, and 55 is related to how they\u2019re going to capitalize on AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tariffs are a challenge for Apple, but one that analysts seem confident the company can manage. A combination of Apple\u2019s diversified supply chain \u2013 which it partially shifted to areas like India and Vietnam around five years ago to reduce reliance on China during COVID \u2013 along with its high margins and Cook\u2019s operations expertise put the company in a strong position.<\/p>\n

Supply chain resilience is \u201csupposed to allow you to adjust tactically to any major changes that comes unexpected,\u201d said Runar Bj\u00f8rhovde, a research analyst for market research firm Canalys.<\/p>\n

That held true even before Apple committed to investing an additional $100 billion in the United States to manufacture iPhone parts domestically on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

While moves like these don\u2019t directly impact tariff policy, they do likely help Apple curry favor with the administration, especially as Trump has pressed Apple to build its iPhones domestically.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, he\u2019s not making this kind of an investment anywhere in the world, not even close,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe\u2019s coming back. I mean, Apple is coming back to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some analysts already expected that the iPhone would be exempt from the upcoming levies on India ahead of Wednesday\u2019s tariff announcement. But the back-and-forth tariff policies, which have changed multiple times throughout the year, make it challenging to predict what could happen in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause (smartphones are) such an important category, the relationship that Apple has with both administrations, and specifically, even the US administration, we do think that they will be able to maneuver against this threat,\u201d said Nabila Popal, senior director with the International Data Corporation\u2019s data and analytics team. \u201cBut it is important, of course. It does present a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, analysts largely believe India and China are Apple\u2019s only two options for producing US-bound iPhones at scale. And since iPhone models available in the United States don\u2019t precisely match those sold elsewhere, Apple can\u2019t just redirect iPhones intended for different markets. New iPhones sold in America, for example, don\u2019t have physical SIM card slots anymore, and they support millimeter wave 5G, the kind of connection that provides faster, low-latency speeds but usually only at a short distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive tactical nightmare to deal with,\u201d said Bj\u00f8rhovde. \u201cBecause you have to try and find a sweet spot and figure out what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook said iPhones will continue to be assembled outside of the United States for \u201ca while\u201d during an event at the Oval Office announcing the new $100 billion investment on Wednesday. But he pointed to the company\u2019s strategy of instead producing iPhone components stateside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if you look at the bulk of it, we\u2019re doing a lot of the semiconductors here, we\u2019re doing the glass here, we\u2019re doing the Face ID module here, and so there\u2019s a ton of it, and we\u2019re doing these for products sold elsewhere in the world,\u201d Cook said. \u201cAnd so there\u2019s a lot of content in there from United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The narrative that Apple is behind in AI has been looming over the company all year \u2013 and some analysts see it as a more challenging issue to overcome than tariffs. Apple delayed a high-profile upgrade to its Siri assistant that would have enabled it to provide more personalized answers and act across apps, bringing it up to speed with the agent-like capabilities that Google and OpenAI are pursuing with their digital helpers.<\/p>\n

And the company\u2019s rivals are still using that setback as ammunition to promote their own products over Apple\u2019s. Just this week, Google posted an ad<\/a> for its upcoming Pixel 10 phone that said: \u201cIf you buy a new phone because of a feature that\u2019s coming soon, but it\u2019s been coming soon for a full year, you could change your definition of soon.\u201d Apple\u2019s initial batch of AI features also didn\u2019t launch in time for the iPhone 16\u2019s arrival last September.<\/p>\n

At the same time, many of Apple\u2019s peers are seeing booming returns from their AI investments. Nvidia<\/a> (NVDA<\/a>) and Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) both hit four trillion dollars in market capitalization in July, a milestone Wall Street previously thought Apple (AAPL<\/a>) might reach first.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s partially because of their fundamentally different products and business models. Apple is a consumer hardware company. In contrast, Microsoft, Meta (META<\/a>) and Nvidia also provide the tools that businesses rely on to support AI-powered services and features, like cloud computing, chips and AI models.<\/p>\n

Still, Apple saw stellar earnings results<\/a> for the June quarter, surpassing expectations for iPhone sales \u2013 including in China \u2013 and overall revenue.<\/p>\n

But during Apple\u2019s earnings call, analysts pressed Cook about his perspective on AI and what it means for the company\u2019s products. Those questions ranged from whether AI services might be eating into search engine usage, whether the forthcoming Siri upgrade could drive future new products and whether Apple would consider acquiring AI companies to further its product roadmap.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking a step back, we see AI as one of the most profound technologies of our lifetime,\u201d Cook said in his opening remarks during the earnings call. \u201cWe are embedding it across our devices and platforms and across the company. We are also significantly growing our investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Apple can\u2019t risk falling too far behind when it comes to the iPhone\u2019s AI capabilities. By doing so, it could create an opportunity for Samsung, Google and Qualcomm \u2013 the three of which dominate the Android phone space \u2013 to pull ahead, says Ted Mortonson, managing director and technology sector strategist at financial services company Baird.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s more important with investors is, after the iPhone 17, what do they really do?\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, as far as generative AI and AI functionality, that that\u2019s the real focus on Apple right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple CEO Tim Cook should be breathing a sigh of relief. The White House on Wednesday ratcheted tariffs on Indian imports up by an additional 25 percent, raising the total levies on one of the United States\u2019 most crucial trading partners to 50 percent when they kick in later this month. But smartphones are exempt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":872406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[376,163],"tags":[5315,5123],"class_list":{"0":"post-872405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-apple","8":"category-trumps","9":"tag-apple","10":"tag-trumps"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}