WSJ reports tariff impact on iPhone 16 Pro production

A report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) broke down how the tariffs imposed by US President Trump affected production for the iPhone 16 Pro. This report used information from iFixit and TechInsights to calculate how much more it cost China with the 34% tariff.

Specifically, the iPhone 16 Pro (256GB) was used for the report. The total Bill of Materials (BoM) pre-tariffs was USD 549.73 (PHP 31,468.40) with assembly and testing rounding this up to USD 580 (~PHP 33,000).

The most expensive components of the model are its rear camera array (USD 126.95), the A18 Pro chipset (USD 90.85), and its display (USD 37.97). This is followed by its 256GB of storage, which costs USD 20.59.

The iPhone 16 Pro with 256GB retails for USD 1,100 (~PHP 63,000). The tariff isn’t applied to this yet, but it’s being applied to the cost of the components now. WSJ has calculated that the tariffs will impact production with the BoM going up to USD 847 (~PHP 48,000).

Apple has production in China and India, with tariffs at 34% and 26% for both countries, respectively. While the company was able to diversify its production base, the increasing costs are getting hefty.

The question here is if Apple’s profit margin could absorb the damages. We’re just hoping that consumers don’t get the brunt of it all. The crazy part is that production costs could go even higher that USD 300, as BBC just reported that Trump just threatened China with a 50% tariff.