iPhone prices set to skyrocket with new tariffs

Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max will cost $2,300 if we factor in the tariffs. (Picture: Apple)
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max will cost $2,300 if we factor in the recent tariffs. (Picture: Apple)
Update: After significant uproar in the markets, Trump has said he would excempt tariffs for phones, computers and chip imports from China, CNBC reports, but Apple is still paying many other tariffs.

A brand new iPhone 16 Pro Max could set you back $2,300, Rosenblatt Securities analysts say to Reuters, who are factoring in a 43% price hike to offset the new tariffs on the countries that produce them.

The cheapest iPhone, the 16e, would go from $599 to just over $850, if Apple doesn’t decide to eat up the tariffs themselves, according to MacRumors.

Price hikes between 40 and 43%
Other analysts, like Counterpoint Research co-founder Neil Shahm predicts a price hike of about 30%, which is still steep.

Most iPhones are still made in China, which was slapped with a 54% tariff this week, or uses components from there and assembling in Vietnam, which has a 46% tariff, and in India with 26% in tariffs.

Angel Zino, equity analyst at CFRA Research, tells Reuters it will be difficult for apple to pass more than 5 to 10% onto its customers, and adds:

Might not debut until fall event
— We expect Apple to hold off on any major increases on phones until this fall when its iPhone 17 is set to launch, as it is typically how it handles planned price hikes.

So it wouldn’t be entirely surprising that Apple will hold prices steady for now, and drop the bomb at the next Apple Event.

And that fall launch might herald in the first iPhones selling at north of $2000 dollars, with price hikes across the entire lineup.

Apple sells about 220 million iPhones worldwide every year, especially in price sensitive countries like China, so a price hike like this could really hurt them.

— Our quick math on Trump’s tariff Liberation Day suggests this could blow up Apple, potentially costing the company up to $40 billion, notes Barton Crockett, analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.

Apple stock is down nearly 15% since the tariff announcement on April 3.

Read more Reuters, and MacRumors does the math.