Apple's $900 million tariff bill in Q3 is a sign of Tim Cook's supply chain mastery

Both by getting an exemption, and by toiling for seven years to diversify its iPhone manufacturing efforts outside of China, the $900 million estimate of tariff impacts in the third quarter is paltry compared to what it could have been, and is for other companies.Part of Apple's current iPhone 16 rangeAn unusual part of Apple's latest earnings call was when Cook broke off from recounting the quarter in question, and instead offered what he called color on the future. Really he was speaking about tariffs, which were introduced in Q2 but sufficiently anticipated in Q1 that it had an impact on Apple sales.Cook had already said that Apple used a 'build ahead' approach, to get more imports done before the tariff announcement for the third quarter. While he didn't comment on the unexpectedly higher severity of Trump's tariffs, he said that Apple estimates that 'the tariffs will add $900 million to our costs for the third fiscal quarter.' Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums