| From: zax | 4/4/2025 2:11:58 PM | | | | | | Expert warns of 'economic Armageddon,' $3,500 iPhones from tariffs
finance.yahoo.com
One of Wall Street's most unrelenting tech bulls now sees "dark days" ahead for the tech trade as the reality of expansive new tariffs sets in. It's a sign that as times change, people do too, Yahoo Finance's Myles Udland wrote.
"The concept of taking the US back to the 1980's 'manufacturing days' with these tariffs is a bad science experiment that in the process will cause an economic Armageddon in our view and crush the tech trade, AI Revolution theme, and overall industry in the process," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients on Friday.
Ives offered another warning about the economic pain that these tariffs could bring to US consumers: He noted that the cost of an Apple ( AAPL) iPhone might triple.
"50% China tariffs, 32% Taiwan tariffs would essentially cause a shut-off valve from the US tech landscape and in the process cause every electronic to go up 40%-50% for consumers, iPhones made in the US would cost $3,500 (vs. $1,000), and the AI Revolution trade would be significantly slowed down by these head scratching tariffs that NEED to be negotiated to realistic levels." (Emphasis added.)
... finance.yahoo.com |
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| From: zax | 4/7/2025 4:41:35 PM | | | | | | Apple’s collapse proves cosying up to Trump is no guarantee of safety
The big tech giant’s close relationship with the president has failed to protect it from trade war chaos
telegraph.co.uk
For years, Tim Cook has become something of a horse-whisperer figure in his dealings with Donald Trump.
“Tim Cook calls Donald Trump directly,” the US president said of Apple’s chief executive during his first term in 2019, speaking in the third person.
“That’s why he’s a great executive. Because he calls me and others don’t.” Other bosses, he said, “go out and hire very expensive consultants”.
Despite Trump being deeply unpopular with much of Apple’s Silicon Valley workforce, Cook – a seasoned corporate diplomat – maintained a warm relationship with him, steadily navigating the White House’s choppy trade war against China.
His lobbying was crucial to Apple securing exemptions for billions of dollars in imports of Chinese-made smartwatches and other components. Trump, meanwhile, claimed to have brought Apple manufacturing back to the US when he toured a Mac computer factory in Texas (the factory had been open since 2013, but Apple did not correct the president).
But on Wednesday, Cook’s delicate manoeuvres seemed to hit a brick wall.
Trump imposed crushing tariffs not only on China, where the majority of Apple’s iPhones are made, but also on countries such as Vietnam and India, where Cook has quietly moved parts of its production in recent years in anticipation of further Chinese tensions.
Trump’s tariffs could lead to the price of an iPhone rising by up to 43pc, according to analysts at Rosenblatt Securities. The most expensive iPhone 16 Pro Max would cost around $2,300 (£1,773), up from $1,599 today, while the cheapest would cost $1,142, up from $799.
</snip> Read the rest here: telegraph.co.uk |
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| From: zax | 5/1/2025 12:36:56 PM | | | | | | Apple Must Halt Non-App Store Sales Commissions, Judge Says
apple.slashdot.org
Apple violated a court order requiring it to open up the App Store to third-party payment options and must stop charging commissions on purchases outside its software marketplace, a federal judge said in a blistering ruling that referred the company to prosecutors for a possible criminal probe. From a report:
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided Wednesday with "Fortnite" maker Epic Games over its allegation that the iPhone maker failed to comply with an order she issued in 2021 after finding the company engaged in anticompetitive conduct in violation of California law.
Gonzalez Rogers also referred the case to federal prosecutors to investigate whether Apple committed criminal contempt of court for flouting her 2021 ruling. The U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco declined to comment. The changes the company must now make could put a sizable dent in the double-digit billions of dollars in revenue the App Store generates each year.
The judge's order [PDF]:
Apple willfully chose not to comply with this Court's Injunction. It did so with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers which would, by design and in effect, maintain a valued revenue stream; a revenue stream previously found to be anticompetitive. That it thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation. As always, the cover-up made it worse. For this Court, there is no second bite at the apple.
It Is So Ordered. |
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| From: zax | 5/6/2025 12:47:08 PM | | | | | | Amazon Adds Purchase Button To iOS Kindle App Following App Store Rule Changes
apple.slashdot.org
Amazon has updated its Kindle iOS app with a new "Get Book" button that redirects users to complete purchases through their mobile browser, taking advantage of recent App Store rule changes. The update follows Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' April 30th ruling in Epic Games v. Apple, which bars Apple from collecting a 27% commission on purchases made outside apps or restricting how developers direct users to alternative payment options.
Previously, iOS users had to visit Amazon's website through a browser to buy Kindle books -- a workaround implemented after Apple's 2011 rule changes required developers to remove links to external purchasing options. Apple has appealed the ruling but is complying in the interim. |
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| From: zax | 5/8/2025 11:55:47 AM | | | | | | Apple Asks Court To Halt App Store Rule Changes While It Appeals
apple.slashdot.org
Apple asked a judge to halt an order forcing it to give up control over App Store payments while it appeals the decision. From a report:
In a filing on Wednesday, Apple says the order contains "extraordinary intrusions" that could result in "grave irreparable harm" to the company. Last week, California District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found that Apple was in "willful violation" of a 2021 injunction issued as part of the Epic Games v. Apple case.
As a result, the judge ordered Apple to stop collecting an up to 27 percent commission on purchases made outside the App Store, and said the company can no longer restrict how developers point users toward external purchases. |
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| From: Jon Koplik | 5/10/2025 9:42:00 PM | | | | | | NYT -- How Apple Created a Legal Mess When It Skirted a Judge’s Ruling ....................
nytimes.com
or :
archive.ph
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excerpt :
The documents made clear that Mr. Roman had lied under oath, that the Analysis Group report was a “sham” and that Apple had “willfully” disregarded a court order, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said. She called it a “cover-up.”
Her ruling will give prosecutors, regulators and judges ammunition against Apple’s defense strategies in a half dozen similar cases around the world, several antitrust and tech law professors and lawyers said.
When the company tries to redact or withhold documents, prosecutors and judges can point to how those strategies were found to be “tactics to delay the proceedings” in the Epic Games case, these experts said. When Apple executives testify, prosecutors and judges could question their credibility because the company was found to “hide the truth” and “outright lie.”
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