2d ago

Trump tariffs result in 10% laptop price hike in U.S. says Acer CEO

www.tomshardware.com Trump tariffs result in 10% laptop price hike in U.S. says Acer CEO

Prices are set to go up from March.

IT'S OFFICIAL, FOLKS! Trump thinks he can just slap tariffs on our friends abroad and watch us 'compete' again? Newsflash: this only hurts the little guy (and the planet). Just got word from Acer CEO that those tariffs have already led to a 10% price hike for laptops in the US. That's right, we're paying more for the very devices that are supposed to help us succeed in an era of 'American greatness'. Meanwhile, Trump is too busy coddling his corporate pals to care about the real American people. Wake up, sheeple! It's time to stop voting for politicians who only look out for their buddies on Wall Street.

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MAGAts be like: "I don't own a computer since I got a smartphone, it's good enough for checking my e-mails and facebook account, so it doesn't bother me."

Guess I'm 10% less likely to buy one then. If crashing consumer confidence is the goal you're well on your way Mr President.
- We're not the consumers Trump cares about
  
  Follow the money. Where do the tariffs end up?
- TBF I was always 100% less likely to buy an Acer.
- I think you're being too generous. I'm probably not alone in saying that a 10% price increase gives me 0% interest in buying a new laptop.
  
  Regardless I'm not buying a new laptop. My 15 year old netbook is chugging along and if it suddenly died I'd sooner rehab another used one rather than make this economy look in any way good by buying new.

"Guy in charge of increasing profits and blaming whatever to justify price hikes is actually right this time..."

Good thing that the US has a monopoly on chips and they don't mostly come from Asia/China, right?
The only thing this is assuring is that other places like Europe don't pass through US brands before getting their computer equipment. If China was already good at one thing, it was at creating generic brands to bypass things like US IP for other regions. Now, the US has given them an additional stimulus in doing so. Hell, it has even given other countries a reason to support China over Taiwan. If you are looking for something to invest in, might want to look into investing in AliExpress.

Winning!
So much for a free market.

Damn.

lol great

How exactly does this hurt the planet? If the United States imports fewer laptops, then that means there are less laptops coming over on ships from China which saves fuel. If tariffs cause a rise in US production, then the production of the product is closer to the end consumer, again saving fuel.
- The same amount of laptops will come over, we’ll just be paying more for them. The production of laptops from scratch in the U.S. will very likely never happen. The best case scenario where we do become an electronics manufacturing powerhouse would take literally decades.
  
  If they cost more, it would also disincentivize spending on the laptop unless it's necessary. So theoretically fewer laptops should come over. If you don't buy a laptop because your laptop isn't really in need of replacement, then you just saved 100%. Or you could also buy a used laptop that's newer than the one you have from somebody else in good condition and save some percentage of what you would have paid for the new one anyway.
  Just as an example, I'm rocking a laptop from 2014 with an Intel 3rd generation Core i7. Obviously the newest Intel is the 13th generation, but you can find Intel 7th and 8th generation laptops which are much newer than mine for decent prices.
- If tariffs cause a rise in US production
  This is one of the problems with the Trumpian approach to tariffs. I don't know if you hadn't noticed, but there's remarkably little manufacturing in the USA for quite some time now, but let's play this out.
  The cost to set up a laptop manufacturing firm in the US is anywhere from $50,000,000 to $200,000,000. Then, you've gotta acquire all the raw materials and components to assemble the laptops, let's call that another $500,000,000. Then, of course, you've gotta staff the place, and this is in a country where we do not have a lot of people that are experienced in manufacturing. Let's call that another $100,000,000. By the time you add in R&D, logistics costs, legal and compliance (because the US is a bit more stringent than China in this area), you're talking about $1 - $3 BILLION in costs.
  Now, out of the few people / companies that have enough money to actually set up a laptop manufacturer in the USA, think about how confident they'd have to be to pull this off. The largest problem is, if you spend your billion dollars and build this factory and then the next week Trump removes the tariff, you're instantly competing with foreign firms again, and you're going to be going under pretty fast.
  I'd say this tariff would have to be in place at LEAST 10 years before anyone gets confident enough to spend the massive amount of money and effort quoted above. When you think about how many millions of laptops are going to get sold between now and then, it's pretty clear the American consumer is going to take a huge bath in the meantime.
  Like so many things Trump is doing, this tariff is supposed to piss off China but just ends up fucking the consumer. Trump and his billionaire friends don't care if a laptop is an extra $200. That's change they can find under the couch. For your average American trying to make ends meet, that $200 sure as fuck would be useful.
  So go ahead, vote Republican to "own the libs". Just don't be surprised when the sudden pain you feel in your wallet is very real.
  
  That 10-year time horizon is a very good point. And it's not likely that the tariff would stick around that long since every four years has a changing administration who can do whatever they please in those regards.
  Personally, for me anyway, I am a Monero holder and am seeing prices fall fairly rapidly. For example, a thing of beard oil in October of 2024 was 72.9mXMR and is now 61.11mXMR (-16.2%).
- Check the labels of all the stuff in your apartment to see how much of it is made in USA, you will find barely anything that isn't a consumable is made in the US, local manufacturing was shut down decades ago as all of that got outsourced to cheaper countries in the bottomless chase for profit by greedy corporations. So why are tariffs an issue, cause there ain't any local companies making laptops for Americans to buy, and you can't just stop buying goods that society relies on, so people are forced to pay more to buy the imported goods, so you will be paying more money for these things while it takes decades to ramp up local manufacturing again and train the workers etc. if that were to even happen
  
  Chicken and egg problem. Tariffs can make work or products once deemed unprofitable, profitable once more. It is likely, the US already has computer production facilities which may at this point not profitable to scale up or enter a consumer market. Intels CPUs are produced in the states already, maybe what stopped a vendor from using them in their own laptops was strong market competition which may now be lower due to tariffs? What Im trying to say, though, is that it will take time to see the results of Trumps market intervention. In the immediate future, Acer laptops will increase in price, long term.. we can only speculate.
- the majority of laptops dont come from companies like acer. the majority of them are leased by dell/lenovo/hp to businesses. all this does is hurt acer. and businesses require the laptops to function so the major total of laptops isnt changing much.
  also tariffs doesnt automatically create rise of US production. it can also have the opposite effect. E.g during trumps last term, boutique case maker CaseLabs went out of business due to tariffs on aluminum prices. You know which case companies survived? the ones that kept production in asia.
  
  all this does is hurt acer
  I don’t think it will necessarily hurt them if other brands follow suit. It will hurt the consumers, that is.
  
  I'm not totally sure how those lease programs to companies work. Once the laptops are replaced, I know some of them will obviously be unusable and have to be destroyed. But there should be laptops that are in perfectly fine condition. And what happens to those if they get put on the second hand market you could buy them from their and the company paid the "new" tax. Now to make up for that, the company could either raise their prices on their items or if they don't want to lose sales, they could eat it.
  Edit: A price rise will cause a demand drop. If the upgrade was not essential, it won't be done. And if it was essential, it will be done whether the price has risen or not.

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