Apple customers reportedly scrambling to upgrade iPhones before tariff price hikes kick in

Apple customers are reportedly scrambling to upgrade their iPhones to avoid expected price hikes driven by President Trump’s tariffs.The looming levies will hit key parts of Apple’s supply chain, including China, where CEO Tim Cook’s firm still manufactures the vast majority of its hardware.Aside from a 54% tariff rate on goods imported from China, Trump imposed a 46% on Vietnam and 26% rate on India – two other major production hubs for the company.Research firm TechInsights told the Wall Street Journal that the price of manufacturing an iPhone could jump by more than 45% from $580 to $850.Elsewhere, analysts at Rosenblatt Securities said the cost of building an iPhone could jump 43%, which would equate to a jump from $799 to $1,500 if passed along to customers.Apple has yet to confirm whether it will hike iPhone prices in response to higher manufacturing costs or eat the losses to keep prices low.

Still, some customers aren’t taking any chances.“You gotta take care of your own personal needs and there’s no question in my mind that the prices are going to go up,” Joel Burke, a 32-year-old policy professional, told the Journal.Another Apple customer, Allison Post, said her plans to upgrade her old iPhone were accelerated due to the Trump tariff announcement.“The tariffs for sure pushed me out the door,” Post, a 69-year-old health writer, told the Journal.“Why pay what might turn out to be double?”Employees at a pair of Apple stores in the San Francisco area reportedly said that customers had been citing the tariffs as their reason to buy new iPhones.Apple did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.The company is already taking steps to mitigate the blow – including reported plans to shift more iPhone production from China to India.It’s also possible that Trump could grant Apple a tariff exemption for iPhones, as he did during his first term in office.

So far, the president has yet to say if he will do so.Apple shares we...