New Delhi, May 24
A ‘Made in US’ Apple iPhone can cost a whopping $3,500 (more than Rs 2,98,000) in absence of a fully-integrated supply chain in the country, top analysts have said.
Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, told the CNN that the idea of fully domestic iPhone production is a “fictional tale.”
Ives also warned that replicating Apple’s complex Asian supply chain in the US would result in massive cost increases.
The report quoted him as saying that “You build that (supply chain) in the US with a fab in West Virginia and New Jersey. They’ll be $3,500 iPhones”.
Moreover, it would take Apple at least three years and a massive $30 billion just to shift 10 per cent of its supply chain to the US, according to market watchers.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call that “the majority” of iPhones shipped to the US for the June quarter will soon come from India.
US President Donald Trump has threatened a 50 per cent tax on all imports from the European Union as well a 25 per cent tariff on Apple products unless iPhones are made in the US.