I don’t think it will actually happen. They have been saying for some time that it would take at least a decade to move the supply chain out of china- and I think that is an overly optimistic one given that they are probably basing their predictions off of how things went in china, where they are used to effective state support and a highly educated workforce. … there are other issues, like how all of the glass utilized in smartphones is made by like, one factory/company in china…. China could also just utilize the infrastructure there to sell what is effectively the iphone but without the rentier rates charged by apple… that isn’t even getting into the mineral resources smartphones require- like rare earth metals that china controls the production of
idk, maybe they are saying that to get trump off of their back, or help him save face… and/or ease skittish investors
so it sounds like they want to make a distinction without a difference… but china and the us may both be upset- the us for having 100% of its parts manufactured in china still… china for trying to “leave china” to avoid tariffs… the cost of moving assembly might still be expensive and take time to occur. anything that takes more than a few business cycles, let alone 4 years when the political situation could change. apple has deep pockets from all the chinese labor they have exploited, so maybe they could get away with that, but what would it even accomplish?