Trump’s new trade tariffs will increase the prices of gadgets and gaming consoles. The impact of the tariffs won’t be apparent immediately. It will instead be felt over the coming months as companies adjust their supply chains and inventories.
Device manufacturers source components from across the globe and often assemble them overseas before importing the final product into the country. With tariffs now imposed on every country, the cost to produce these devices is set to rise inevitably.
Goods shipped from China will face a 54 percent tariff, while those from Vietnam, where companies like Apple have shifted some manufacturing, will face a 46 percent tariff.
Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, explains the situation. “The biggest thing right now is going to be the inflationary impact,” he says. “If they stay in place for several months, we’ll start to see those effects by mid-summer and certainly back-to-school season.”
Miller warns that if companies absorb the extra cost without passing it on, “their profits are going to plunge and their capital investment will drop. Or, they’ll pass a good share of it onto the downstream buyer, which in many instances is the consumer.”
Ryan Reith, group vice president of worldwide device trackers at IDC, states that every device category will be negatively impacted barring any new exemptions or changes. He notes that smartphones have more wiggle room than TVs or PCs because of a “well-established monthly hardware payment dependence.”
Miller adds that it is unlikely for a smartphone to suddenly become 50 percent more expensive and a 20 percent price increase is a more reasonable expectation.
Device makers have increased their inventory
Some device makers have increased their inventory in anticipation of the tariffs. Computer imports in recent months were over 70 percent higher than in 2023, and cell phone imports in February 2025 were the highest since 2022.
Ryan Reith explains that vendors and channels have been stretching their existing inventory to avoid price increases.
“Vendors/channels have been stretching existing inventory as much as they can to avoid price increases, but close deadlines announced yesterday for tariff increases significantly ramp up the pressure. I’d be surprised if even the best positioned brands in terms of inventory are able to stretch two to three weeks beyond the new tariff deadlines.”
~ Ryan Reith
This has led some experts to advise consumers to act before inventory runs out. “If you’re looking at a laptop that’s assembled in China, and you’re wondering whether to buy now or wait until the fall, I would buy now,” Miller advises. He added that these tariffs would not encourage domestic production of these types of devices.
Some industry experts, however, believe that even with these tariffs, it remains cheaper to manufacture devices overseas. The United States has lost much of its consumer electronics manufacturing capacity over the last few decades, and a return to domestic production is unlikely to happen quickly.
Simon Ellis, group vice president at IDC, points out, “It’s also important to remember that ‘made in America’ has almost always meant ‘assembled in America’ with parts coming from all over the world,” while acknowledging that reshoring faces significant hurdles.
Gaming industry is also expected to raise prices
In addition to the consumer electronics sector, the video game industry is expected to suffer from the tariffs. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), representing all major gaming companies in the United States, has stated that the tariffs will “have a real and detrimental impact on the video game industry.”
Aubrey Quinn, senior vice president of the ESA, explains that increased costs will affect the video game industry. She says that the higher costs due to tariffs will have a negative impact on the gaming industry as a whole.
Quinn adds that the sourcing and shipping process means, “any one product that a consumer would buy is likely to be subject to many of the tariffs announced, all compounded on top of one another.”
She warns that the situation may worsen if affected countries take retaliatory measures. “I think what we heard yesterday is not the end of the story,” she adds, “not for the United States, not for other countries.”
Following the reveal of the new Switch 2, concerns have been raised about its pricing. Analyst Daniel Ahmad points out, “Nintendo shifted its manufacturing to Vietnam to avoid tariffs and with today’s reciprocal tariff announcements they’re likely going to end up paying tariffs anyway.”
He also notes that the console’s higher cost in the United States compared to Japan is probably a calculated move by Nintendo due to future tariff impacts, market conditions, and weak Japanese yen.
There are fears that the Switch 2, currently priced at $450 in the United States, could eventually rise to $600 due to the tariffs. Ahmad, however, adds that it is “unlikely that Nintendo will raise the price of the console at this point, but it’s also unlikely to see a price drop in the next five years.”
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