Expect this trend to continue -- firms have delayed price adjustments to avoid retaliation from Trump as doing so would draw attention to Trump's many inflationary policies.
Now all of the businesses who use Apple products as an input are more likely to raise their own prices, etc. This is how inflation happens across the economy. Trade war leads to price increases on Apple's inputs, Apple has to raise prices, etc.
You're right it's not only trade policy, but I think most of the fab contracts on current models were already negotiated and Apple ate $3.3B of tariffs as a COGS increase (delaying passthrough avoids spotlighting tariff-driven inflation). Increasing DRAM prices are a factor, but would not be a 20% BOM price increase at all (much less on the total price) for most of the impacted devices. The magnitude and the simultaneous across-the-line timing look more like margin recovery than a component passthrough.
One of my 2024 predictions was that Trump would push through the biggest tax increase in history, and that his anti-tax base would cheer it. (Deficit spending doesn't exist and tax increases aren't tax increases if a Republican is in office.)
I thought the scenario would be "we're going to abolish income tax and implement a national sales tax or VAT!" but then the abolishing of income tax part never happens and we just get income tax plus national sales tax plus VAT.
Instead he did it with tariffs. Don't know if it's the biggest tax increase in history but it's pretty sizable, and of course it's regressive.
maybe in our lives people will start to realize there is really only one political party and its always going to be them vs us until we are all serfs earning below subsistence wages.
I'm not saying they're all great. In a democracy, especially when you face only a few options, it's always a lesser of two evils choice. I've never voted for someone I thought was great.
well you can pick between the party that wants higher taxes, or the party that wants lower taxes for the rich. you can vote for the party that wants closed borders because people vote for them on that issue but who always do whatever their their corporate lobbyists want (protip: they want to pay lower wages), or you can vote for the party that openly hates white people and thinks they dont vote correctly so they should be replaced with foreigners who vote as directed.
you can vote for the party that complains housing is getting more expensive while the states they run is full of the most expensive housing on average, or you can vote for the party who thinks deregulating everything is economically smart, but wont pass cost savings on to the buyer so the investment companies who only build communal housing and mcmansions see any benefit from it while your expensive shack falls apart in a decade or so.
but at least historically both parties agree that censorship is good, encryption should be kept from the plebs, and israel should get whatever it wants with a minimum of performative resistance sometimes.
or rather this: which party thinks that the rush to build ai data centers which are meant to create a chinese style ai surveillance state should be stopped on the premise that americans are survelied enough already and manipulated enough online as it is? there isnt one? if these parties were truly enemies they wouldnt consolidate more governmental power because obviously this power will fall into their enemies hands if there is a party switch in the federal government.
Now all of the businesses who use Apple products as an input are more likely to raise their own prices, etc. This is how inflation happens across the economy. Trade war leads to price increases on Apple's inputs, Apple has to raise prices, etc.