By Joanna Stern, Adrienne Tong and Nicole Nguyen

The dream of the Trump tariffs is to bring high-tech manufacturing to the U.S. The reality could be a bajillion-dollar iPhone.

Apple's big moneymaker is a global patchwork. It has components sourced from all over the world, brought together primarily in China, where electronics manufacturing has been perfected over a generation.

Moving just the assembly process to the U.S.? Not cheap and definitely not easy.

Take a look at this iPhone 16 Pro. Your cost, for the 256GB version, is $1,100. The cost of all the hardware inside -- aka the bill of materials -- was about $550 to Apple when the phone was introduced, says Wayne Lam, research analyst at TechInsights, which breaks down major products. Throw in assembly and testing and Apple's cost rises to around $580. Even when you account for Apple's advertising budget and all the included services -- iMessage, iCloud, etc. -- there's still a healthy profit margin.

Now factor in the newly announced tariff for goods from China, which currently totals 54%. The cost rises to around $850. That profit margin would shrink dramatically if Apple didn't up the price. And you don't become a trillion-dollar gadget company by charging for things at cost.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's pricing plans or manufacturing details.

So what about that American-made iPhone? Wouldn't it at least save on tariffs? Apple would still pay levies on the device's many imported parts. Plus, a manufacturing move to the U.S. would be "a massive, mammoth undertaking" that would take years, says Barton Crockett, senior research analyst at brokerage firm Rosenblatt Securities.

And the phone itself would likely cost more -- a lot more. The assembly ecosystem in China is labor intensive and wouldn't make economic sense in the U.S., Crockett explains. "It's not clear you can make a competitively priced smartphone here."

By Lam's estimates, the assembly labor that might cost $30 per phone in China could cost $300 in the U.S. And if every single component, from the touchscreen display to the internal storage were built here? Yep, a bajillion dollars. And maybe a magic wand.

This tariff matter is far from settled. Our advice is to hold off on stockpiling last year's iPhones, and make that one in your hand last as long as it can.

Write to Joanna Stern at joanna.stern@wsj.com, Adrienne Tong at adrienne.tong@wsj.com and Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 05, 2025 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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