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Apple (AAPL) says the March quarter saw limited tariff impact, but costs could rise to $900 million in the June quarter if rates hold steady.
Bob O'Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research, joins Market Domination Overtime to discuss the tariff impact and Apple's supply chain shifts.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here.
All right, as we are continuing to listen here live to Apple’s second quarter earnings call. Let's bring in our Bob O'Donnell, TECHnalysis Research LLC president for more on the very latest. Bob, it's always good to see you. Let me get your, your quick thoughts, uh, Bob, on the print, your reaction to the results. And then what we're hearing from the call. We'll mention, uh, Tim Cook just saying here right now, March quarter saw limited tariff impact, June quarter not able to estimate impact precisely. You know, it's too uncertain, but for some color he said, assuming current rates don't change, no new tariffs added. Impact could add, he said, 900 million to cost for the June quarter. Your reaction, Bob.
Well, first of all, it was a great quarter and, you know, it's great that, that Cook dealt with that question of pull-in versus not because, because the hardware numbers in particular were very strong, I think a lot of people immediately assumed, and I even saw some initial write-ups that, oh, that was based on tariff pull-in. Well, sounds like according to what they're saying, it actually wasn't. So, they did obviously make a bunch of adjustments. We all saw the stories about them flying in all kinds of iPhones from India, uh, in the perhaps concern that there would be additional tariffs. But look, net-net, they did very well. Services was slightly below what the street expected, but it's still a very solid number. And of course, that's their highest profit, profitability business right there. So, I think it sounds pretty good. He left open enough question marks, uh, moving forward that they've got some wiggle room, and yet at the same time, I think provided a little bit of security around, hey, this is where we think it's going to be. And I think all in all, it's not a bad number to be talking about.
So that $900 million number is, what you're saying is, is that, that does not seem that damaging in terms of perhaps what people were expecting and what it does to Apple's business, Bob.
Yeah, I mean, they look, they're doing 60 billion, uh, a plus a quarter, right? So, I mean, it's not that it's nothing. To be clear, right? I mean, it's 900 million dollars, right? Um, but at the end of the day, you know, for some of the real doom and gloom people who've said, oh, it's going to be a complete and utter disaster, I think you have to say, well, okay, you know, yeah, it's not great, but theoretically it could be worse. Of course, we all know, unfortunately, it could be worse because if things change, then all of this gets thrown out the window. And, and that's the biggest problem, right? Is, it's all the uncertainty we have that's putting people on pause for making a lot of big purchases, consumers and businesses.
It was interesting, um, Bob, when, when, when Cook started the call the way he was highlighting the supply chain, the diversity of that supply chain. Uh, what did you make of CFO Kevin Fric's comments to the journal talking about this, saying the company expects that a majority of iPhones sold in the US in the June quarter will come from India and a majority of its other devices sold in the US this quarter, including iPads, Macs, Watch, AirPods, will come from Vietnam. Your, your thoughts on those comments?
Well, look, Apple has been very clear about their shift from China to other Southeastern Asian countries, including India, Vietnam, et cetera, for a while, right? And so that's not really a big surprise. Perhaps the percentage is where the surprise is. But again, we saw they airlifted things. It shows they have the ability to move some critical manufacturing to other places. Obviously not to the US yet, and that's a whole separate discussion, but they can clearly move some of this out of China. Uh, which is, I think is important because we are going to look for a world where we need to have more geographical diversity from a supply chain perspective in the tech industry in general, and Apple's leading the way in that regard. Now, the question becomes, well, wait a minute, you know, all these Southeast Asian countries also got hit with huge tariffs, which kind of actually in some ways helps China. So it, you know, we still need to get some clarification on what, how the tariffs are going to work in different parts of the world, but clearly I think Apple sees that they need to move some of this stuff. They had started this process a while ago. None of these kinds of changes, by the way, happen overnight. They don't happen in a quarter. They don't happen in a year. They take several years and Apple's been working on Indian manufacturing for several years. Same with Vietnam. So, all of these changes are things that have been in motion and now are being accelerated and it makes perfect sense, and I think we'll see it continue.