Apple admits it may need to raise prices to deal with tariffs

Macworld

Apple may soon be forced to put up prices in response to the ongoing tariff war–and that’s not a pundit saying that, but one of the company’s own official statements.

On page 23 of its latest 10-Q SEC filing (which you can read on the Investor Relations web page), Apple discusses risk factors which could affect its operations and stock price. The first to be discussed (at some length) is tariffs:

“Restrictions on international trade, such as tariffs and other controls on imports or exports of goods, technology or data, can materially adversely affect the Company’s business and supply chain,” the statement reads.

“Restrictive measures can increase the cost of the Company’s products and the components and rare earths and other raw materials that go into them or affect [their] availability… and can require the Company to take various actions, including changing suppliers, restructuring business relationships and operations, ceasing to offer and distribute affected products, services and third-party applications to its customers, and increasing the prices of its products and services.”

That isn’t, of course, the same as saying it will definitely happen. Apple is merely disclosing factors that could affect stock prices. There’s a large amount of uncertainty involved: as the company goes on to say, “The ultimate impact remains uncertain and will depend on several factors, including whether additional or incremental U.S. Tariffs or other measures are announced or imposed, to what extent other countries implement tariffs or other retaliatory measures in response, and the overall magnitude and duration of these measures.”

But what’s clear is that price rises are very much on the table, as we already suspected when Tim Cook declined to rule them out last week. We don’t for various reasons recommend panic-buying an iPhone but it’s a factor to bear in mind when planning your purchases.