Tariffs that took effect in the US at midnight on Wednesday are expected to make buying new smartphones more expensive. But opting to fix an old or damaged device as a way to save money may not avoid a higher bill.
“We do expect that we’ll have to increase our own parts prices some, too, unfortunately,” said Elizabeth Chamberlain, the director of sustainability at the device repair company iFixit. “We’re actively looking for sources of harvested parts from within the US. Even with higher prices on parts, however, repairs will still be much more economical than buying new.”
Donald Trump’s tariffs are likely to drive up the cost of smartphone repairs because of the globalized supply chain that produces the devices’ components. The vast majority of parts for popular phones from Apple and Samsung are produced outside of the US. iPhones are primarily manufactured and assembled in China, where businesses that export to the US are bracing for a tariff of over 100%. India, where Apple has shifted some of its production and where Google in part manufactures its Pixel line of phones, is facing a 26% tariff. Samsung’s supply chain is largely based in South Korea, which may see a 25% tariff if the government isn’t able to reach a deal with Trump’s administration. The companies did not respond to requests for comment on potential price increases.
Tariffs may increase demand for phone repairs because a single part, even at a higher price, will remain cheaper than a complete device. The tariffs could drive up the final price of the latest iPhone by nearly $300, according to the Wall Street Journal, which makes repairing the devices people already own a more viable alternative, Chamberlain said.
“It’s a bit too soon to say whether the tariff news is driving more repair demand, but fixing what we’ve got makes more sense than ever, now that buying new will be more expensive,” she said. “We expect the tariffs might also drive demand for refurbishing and parts harvesting. The repair world is full of business models that don’t rely on importing stuff from overseas.”
Increasing price of parts
Repair shops big and small are preparing for the prices of imported parts to go up. A manager of a Brooklyn location of a national repair chain, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said that his business is anticipating a 20% increase for many of the parts required to repair devices.
Dan Fernando, the owner and operator of Technesia, an independent repair shop run out of his Philadelphia home, said he is already seeing some price fluctuations for parts like a particular hard drive he often uses to repair computers. Within the past few days, Fernando has seen the price of the one-terabyte drive rise by $10, an increase that will be passed down to his customers, he said. The electronics repairman charges a flat service fee for each repair, and customers are expected to pay for the cost of a part if they need to get a replacement, a common business model in electronics repair. Fernando sources the parts from a phone repair supplier called MobileSentrix, which imports parts to the US from China and other countries.
“For a screen replacement on phones, I charge $50 flat for the service plus the cost of the screen,” he said. “The customer can expect to pay $80 to $90 for a screen replacement. With the new tariff increase, it will maybe cost 50% more.”
Fernando is also concerned customers will turn to shops that offer cheaper repairs that may begin to use lower grade parts to maintain their profit margins, leaving his business in the lurch. “Some people get it from eBay or Amazon. I don’t use it because I don’t know their quality,” he said.
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Appeal of secondhand devices
With both new devices and repairs becoming pricier, secondhand device marketplaces like Swappa present a third option to concerned customers. The biggest sellers on sites for pre-owned electronics are phones two or three generations behind the latest. At the moment, the best selling devices on Swappa are the iPhones 13 and 14, according to the site’s founder and CEO, Ben Edwards.
“My expectation is that, if these tariffs do remain in place and we do see even further rise in cost of new devices, I think that’ll really drive a lot of new buyers to Swappa and similar sites,” said Edwards. “I’m not sure there’s enough technological advantage with the newest generation.”
But even Swappa may see prices on refurbished devices increase. The site allows sellers – which include both individuals and companies – to set their own prices and provides them with data on previous sales and current demand. When the cost of the newest smartphones go up, sellers often raise the prices of these used devices in response, Edwards said.
“Essentially, demand is ultimately going to kind of dictate the price,” Edwards said. “On Swappa, because of the nature of our marketplace, where we’ve got a lot of different sellers who can each set their price independently, it’s really just market dynamics that are going to dictate the price. If somebody comes in and prices aggressively, they’re going to sell more quickly and that’ll reflect itself in the data.”
In other words, if a consumer is in the market to buy a used device, Edwards advised: “I wouldn’t wait.”
