You Don't Want to Know How Much an iPhone May Soon Cost

As the stock market rides another rough day on Monday, Americans are nervously waiting to see what the Trump administration's tariffs war will do to their shopping bills. It doesn't look good when it comes to picking up a new iPhone: Analysts on Thursday said that iPhone prices could spike 30% to 40% if Apple passes along the increased cost of doing business to consumers, reports Reuters, which notes that an iPhone could soon cost up to an eye-watering $2,300. That's due to the 54% tariff imposed by the US on China, which makes most of the iPhones sold in the States.

Numbers-crunching by Rosenblatt Securities shows that the iPhone 16e has a sticker price of $599, but if Apple doesn't absorb the cost of the tariffs itself and prices rise an anticipated 43%, that same iPhone could cost more than $850; a regular iPhone 16, meanwhile, regularly $799, may soon have a post-tariffs price of $1,142. The potential $2,300 price tag is for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which right now costs about $1,600. "Our quick math on Trump's tariff Liberation Day suggests this could blow up Apple, potentially costing the company up to $40 billion," says Rosenblatt Securities' Barton Crockett. "It's hard for us to imagine Trump blowing up an American icon ... but this looks pretty tough."

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives concurs that it's "dark days" ahead for the tech world unless tariff negotiations begin in earnest ASAP. Trump's tariffs may lead to "an economic Armageddon" that could "take the US tech industry back a decade," all while "China steamrolls ahead," Ives tells Quartz, adding, "US consumers pay the price for this." Ives predicts a 40% to 50% price increase for consumer electronics. The Guardian notes other brands in a variety of industry sectors are already seeing the repercussions of the trade war via their falling stock prices and market value, including Nike, Nvidia, Boeing, Disney, AMEX, and Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, US consumers are trying to get a jump on things by stockpiling now. (More tariffs stories.)