Apple harmed by Trump's trade war

Trump bragged a couple of weeks ago that China's economy was feeling the impact of his tariffs. You know who else is feeling them? Apple, one of the world's largest corporations is feeling the heat.

What Trump doesn't understand is that anything that damages China's economy quickly spreads harm to America. China is one of America's largest customers but also America's factory. If it costs more to produce goods (either because they have to be manufactured in the US or production costs in China increase) Americans ultimately pay the price.

Once companies like Apple lose market share it will be hard to regain - they have very competent competitors. Once production leaves the US (looking at you GM), it won't come back.

And what is it Trump is trying to fix anyway? Economic growth in the US as measured by GDP per capita, market averages and the unemployment rate has been decent.

 

Paying the price: China shoppers, stung by slowdown, take bite out of Apple
Cate Cadell, Josh Horwitz
5 Min Read

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai student Xu Yechuyi wanted to buy a new iPhone last year but couldn’t afford one at Apple Inc’s flagship store, so she opted for a used, three-year-old iPhone 6S at less than a third of the sticker price.

...

The first iPhones in China in 2009 brought Apple record profit. But the launch last year of its most expensive handset ever - priced 9,599 yuan ($1,397) - coincided with economic downturn and a slowing smartphone market, while deteriorating Sino-U.S. trade relations stoked support for local rivals.​

... https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...slowdown-take-bite-out-of-apple-idUSKCN1OX0U0

It's not just one factor contributing to the problem for Apple, but yes, the easy trade war is having repercussions. Apple has, for their part, long been over-charging and focusing too much on high-end, high-cost devices. The Mac is similarly overpriced across the board now. It's a travesty what they have done (and failed to do) with the mini and the Mac Pro on the desktop, for instance. They have been harming themselves, and now the easy trade war is helping drive already economically depressed Chinese away from Apple, and presumably from other American brands, in favor of domestic brands. Windfall for Huawei, I suppose.

 

U.S.manufacturing index has fallen to a two plus year low in the 4th. quarter.

 

I heard a really great story from Obama's old economic adviser, Mr. Goolsby, which tried to illustrate the problems created by Trump's tariffs.

Apparently his uncle purchased a now discontinued product that would allow you to basically fire a bullet into your sink with the intent of busting up clogs. His uncle ignored the directions on the box and, instead of firing one shot, fired all four. The drain was cleared successfully. But he was then invited downstairs by a neighbor who had seen whatever was clogging the drain now explode out of his own sink and all over his wall.

Tariffs, and trade wars, might accomplish one tiny goal. But they will absolutely wreck more sectors of our economy.

 

It's about who cries uncle first. Democrats have been crying uncle since the very inception of an attempt to to force china into being a better trading partner.

 

Temporarily is they key word here. Long term strategic thinking is something the left is short on

 

Trump/Apple...

Which is more disgusting...

 

Proof?

Evidence?

Comparison to right-wing long-term strategic thinking in the form of a reputable peer-reviewed study?

TIA

 

Proof is this thread where the left in here wants to panic and surrender at the first sign that any American entity is feeling economic pain

 

Trump cetainly understands hurting China's economy will lead to some harm to American businesses...but that's not the point...the point is to get China to play fairly on the economic world stage.
Obama on China in the 2012 SOTU:
"It's not right when another country lets our movies, music and software be pirated. It's not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because they're heavily subsidized," Obama said. "I will not stand by when our competitors don't play by the rules."
"Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you -- America will always win," he added.
https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/24/politics/international-reaction-sotu/index.html

 

Apple is not only hurt by the trade war, they are also hurt by their own dumb decisions. Anyone could have told them that the average US customer DOES NOT HAVE $1,000 to spend on a cell phone per year. Therefore, it is no surprise that demand is low for these new super-expensive phones.

I wonder, though, what happened to Apple's tax cut windfall. Oh, I know, it went to $100 billion in stock buybacks, as predicted.

Of course, this happens when you try to fix an economy that is limited by demand due to decades of wage stagnation, by giving goodies to the supply side. All GOP congressmen and presidents with their supply side nonsense should be voted out forever. it is only promises of riches for all that make voters come back to vote for those same failed policies.

 

One of Apple's gimmicks for making money is to make their products which are two or three years old obsolete or useless through their updates. I had an iPad2 that became unusable after an update three or four years ago, and the only solution offered to me was to buy a new model. I tried to get it back to the original state when I bought it and it can't be done, I even tried jailbreaking it and I just could not undo the updates that made it useless.

With that said, I've heard it's the same way with their phones. I have two iPhone 5s which have become nothing more than the world's most expensive alarm clocks when we switched to Galaxy phones a year ago. But I've noticed that Galaxies push their updates rather than ask you to download them and I don't have an option to reject the updates, which I would if I could. Microsoft has done the same thing with Windows 10 where the updates can't be rejected and must be installed, but I haven't looked into bypassing those upgrades because I can always reformat and start over if the computer ever slows down because of them.

On a whim, I bought my wife a Kindle two years ago and she said it still runs the exact same way as when it was new, no updates, as far as she can tell, were ever pushed or installed.

Note about the Galaxy phones: Both my work and home phones are Galaxy models, and talking about stereos on my home phone while in the proximity of my work phone got me stereo ads on my work phone, and this has happened several times before.

 

Not compared to MAGA, who lives in the moment and makes far-reaching policy decisions on a whim just to get positive conservative media commentary each day.

 

Accepting short term economic pain for long term economic gain is long term strategic thinking personified.

 

My iPod Touch still works great with the latest iOS, except the battery is showing its age. What stinks is Apple provides no way for a user to change it; got to send it in for expensive service, or do things unofficially. But it would be a hell of an operation for a pleb like me, all because Apple is anti-consumer in their product designs and policies. I think they only get away with it because they market to people with too much money (so they don't really give a rip about replacing older models on a regular basis) and trade on long-standing brand loyalty.

 

Reminds me of Obamacare.

 

What you had was long term economic gain, in spades. Now you just have the pain. A recession through 2020 isn't short term pain. It really messes up people's lives especially if they're depending on their 401Ks.

 

Smartphone sales are stagnating in general. The market is saturated. Anyone who wants one has one; there is no real need to upgrade every year or two, and the prices are ridiculous. Additionally, you couldn't give me an Apple product. I made the switch to Samsung and I'll never go back. I agree with @Steve N that the forced updates suck though.

 

I'm not familiar with iPods, but I'm certain iPhones and iPads can have their batteries replaced. You have to pull the screen off to do it, but I've seen repair shops that will replace it for $100 give or take.

 

I was just looking at a guide on iFixit. If there's a shop that would go through that hassle for $100, I just might jump on it.

 

I believe the forced updates cause the phones to slow down which makes the desire for the latest and greatest phone more justifiable to some people. In reality, these phones are capable of doing a lot of things, but things most people will never do. It's overkill, but it's also an ego thing to the people who have to have the next greatest thing.

 

Do a search for phone repairs in your area, you should be able to find a place to replace the battery while you wait.

 

What recession? Economy is doing so great that the feds raised rates four times in one year to slow it down.

 

he had to bail out the farmers because of his actions so this should be expected.

 

What short term pain did Obamacare claim to inflict? As I recall it was supposed to immediately lower insurance rates.