Trump tells Cook that he'll give Apple incentives to move iPhone production to the U.S.

85comments
Trump tells Cook that he'll give Apple incentives to move iPhone production to the U.S.
During Tuesday's sit down with the New York Times, President-Elect Donald Trump mentioned a conversation he had after the election with Apple CEO Tim Cook. After the election, Cook reached out to Trump to congratulate him, according to the President-Elect. Trump also relayed part of the conversation that dealt with moving iPhone production to the U.S.

Humility not being one of his prominent traits, Trump steered the conversation to himself by saying that it would be a real feather in his hat if he could get Apple to build a factory in the U.S. instead of China or Vietnam. Trump continued by saying that he would offer incentives to Apple that Trump believes will end up with a spanking new Apple plant being built in the U.S. The President-Elect also reportedly told Cook that his administration is planning on submitting to Congress a huge business tax cut that Cook will be happy about.

We must say that Apple might have seen which way the wind was blowing before others did. A recent report out of Japan stated that back in June, Apple had asked Foxconn and Pegatron, two of the contract manufacturers that assemble the iPhone in Asia, about creating a plan to build the device in the U.S. According to the report, Foxconn agreed to look into it while Pegatron cited the prohibitive cost of such a move to turn down Apple.

While building the iPhone in the U.S. would be positive for Trump's hyper-sensitive ego, and bring more jobs to the U.S., it would also result in a huge price jump for the iPhone as Apple would have to pay more for components and labor. And if Apple can't raise the price of the device to cover its higher costs, its margins will shrink.


It's still way too early to predict what will happen when Trump takes over. After all, his new tone with Apple is a far cry from the Boycott Apple stance he took during the campaign. Back then, he was upset with Apple for not unlocking the iPhone that belonged to a deceased terrorist.

PhoneArena is on Instagram. Follow us to stay updated with fresh news and flashy media from the world of mobile!

source: NYTimes via CNET

Recommended Stories

Loading Comments...
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless