Trump’s bluster on Apple

President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to Apple, the latest being levying a 25% duty on iPhones assembled in India if they are sold in the US, seems set to remain on paper as it’s unlikely that the company will stop ramping up production in the country. The economics simply doesn’t support such a reversal. India has become too critical, cost-effective, and strategically valuable for Apple to backtrack, no matter the political pressure. At the heart of Apple’s India strategy is an unambiguous cost advantage.