iPhone shipments will be split between India and China
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that half of iPhones are coming from India, everything else from Vietnam, and the bare minimum from China when shipping to the United States.
There have been a lot of questions around how Apple will deal with the Trump administration’s extreme tariffs, and there are finally some answers — at least for the short term. Since China has been hit with 125% tariffs, Apple will maneuver around this by minimizing products going from China to the United States.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, in response to an analyst question on the Q2 earnings call, devices delivered to the United States will originate primarily from Vietnam except for iPhones. Half of iPhone shipments will come from India, while the other half will continue to come from China.
As for the rest of the globe, China will be providing inventory. This helps ensure the supply chain keeps moving while minimizing the impact of tariffs in the United States.
However, even with all of the power of Apple’s supply chain, the volume of iPhone shipments is just too great. Apple is expecting to take a $900 million hit in costs during the June quarter alone.
Of course, that $900 million number relies heavily on nothing changing. The 90-day “pause” that set global tariffs to 10% and China tariffs to 125% is already in question, and Apple’s exemptions may also be short-lived thanks to incoming semiconductor tariffs.
So, unless the tariff scheme disappears during the quarter entirely, $900 million is the low-end estimation. Nothing was said about how these costs might be compensated for, but chances are customers will find out in the fall.
