Xmas/Black Friday & Trump Tariffs: Is It Time to Upgrade Your Tech?

Part of me wants to imagine that I’ve slowed down my ever-upgrading technology lifestyle. I mean, I’m still rocking an iPhone 13 (the current version is the iPhone 16) and I’m writing this post on my 2020 iPad Pro. But, at the same time I upgraded my desktop a little over a year ago to an Apple M2 Mac Studio (and traded in my 2020 intel 27” iMac) and upgraded my laptop last March to an M3 MacBook Air (and traded in my 2019 16” MacBook Pro). Since retiring and becoming a bit more of a homebody I haven’t seen the real need to upgrade my iPhone, which I would usually upgrade for the updated camera. And as much as I was interested in the Apple Vision (AR/VR system), the $3,499 price tag for a version one product is just too much to invest in a product that may not see a version two. So, I was thinking about just holding off upgrading anything this holiday/Black Friday season.

But then the other day an article popped up in my feeds asking how prices of tech products were going to be affected by the proposed tariffs on Chinese imports. That caught my attention. The calculation is hardly straight forward, but Mark Hachman at PCWorld posited:

“Smartphone prices would increase by $213 (if a price of $816 is used as a baseline), the CTA found. Smartwatch prices would jump $37. Television prices might only go up $48 — but the cheapest TVs, such as those made by Chinese brands like TCL, might face relatively steep price increases. But it’s the price of video-game consoles that tech enthusiasts should worry about, with tariff costs potentially adding $246 to the total price.”

Besides the increased prices for American customers, there’s every possibility that other countries may decide to impose tariffs on American products, reducing our ability to generate revenue and slowing down our economy, which would either further increase the cost of products or slow down American companies ability to innovate or compete in the world market.

It used to be that I’d recommend holding off or purchasing products based on product cycles and making sure to not buy just before a product upgrade. But now I have to consider how prices might increase or whether products might not be available. Basically, it would suck if I waited to purchase a $499 Apple iPad Mini only to find that in March the same iPad Mini cost $599 or wasn’t available at any price.

Were you thinking of upgrading your tech or purchasing for a loved one for the holidays/Black Friday? Does the potential possibility of price increases influence your decision? These proposed tariffs better not affect the prices or availability of LEGO, dammit!

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