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Trump’s battle with Apple is threatening massive price hikes for Samsung phones
President Donald Trump asked Apple to move manufacturing away from China, a request that the company complied with by shifting to India instead. The president is not pleased with Apple about this, and this battle for an American-made iPhone is severely threatening Samsung phones in the U.S. as well.
Trump recently declared that he would slap 25 percent tariffs on any iPhone models imported into the U.S. after being manufactured elsewhere. However, it would be very difficult to just target a singular company with tariffs. If the president wants to impose a 25 percent tariff rate on the iPhone, then he would have to apply this rate on all smartphones being imported into the country.
This means that Samsung’s Galaxy phones — which are manufactured in Vietnam and India, among other countries — will also face the 25 percent tariff rate. Korean media reports (translated source) that Samsung phones may well see a price hike of a whopping 40 percent in the U.S. due to these tariffs.
Samsung is, according to the report, highly unlikely to simply absorb the cost of the tariffs. The company will pass on the burden to the consumers, mostly because it knows that almost everyone will be aware of the cause of the price hikes. Qualcomm has also been thinking about raising the price of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, which may make certain Samsung phones even more unaffordable next year.
Analysts maintain that Apple cannot realistically be expected to move production to the U.S. before the president’s term ends. In fact, most argue that it is more profitable for the company to just wait for the current administration’s tenure to come to an end. According to them, an iPhone made in the U.S. would be at least double its current cost.
2025 is not shaping up to be a good year for Apple. Apple Intelligence woes continue, the company is engaged in multiple battles in courts, and CEO Tim Cook is extremely anxious about iPhone 17 inventory problems. While Samsung and Google also face threats from potential tariffs, they’re not having to defend their business model in courts every month.
However, if these tariffs do get applied and Apple fails to reach a compromise with the president, then the upcoming Galaxy tri-foldable’s price tag will be out of this world.
