Why did Apple send planes full of iPhones to the US from India?

Apple sent five planes of iPhones from India to the United States ahead of US tariffs on items from China and India – if you’re scratching your head about what the point of this was, here’s what you need to know.

US President Donald Trump issued sweeping tariffs on almost every country in the world on April 5, 2025, meaning companies will begin paying more to import products.

Making companies pay more is expected to make the price of items higher for consumers, meaning the 26% tariff on goods from India and 104% on Chinese products would potentially cause items like Apple’s iPhone to rise sharply in cost.

On April 8, 2025, news broke that Apple sent five planes full of iPhones to the United States ahead of these tariffs taking place.

Apple sent iPhones to US to avoid raising price

According to the Times of India, the Indian government confirmed that Apple transported the devices over to the United States in just three days during the final week of March in preparation for the tariffs.

This allowed Apple to stock up on devices in the country ahead of the import tax and prevents them from having to raise the price on current-gen devices for the foreseeable future.

Apple began moving production of its iPhone and AirPods to India back in 2017 with a focus on the iPhone SE, and in recent years began making current-gen models in the country.

Apple reportedly flew in 5 planes full of iPhones into the U.S. to avoid tariffs pic.twitter.com/ROVdgBPcwT

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) April 8, 2025

While this only affects the price of current-gen iPhones like the 15 and 16 models, if the tariffs stay in place, Apple may need to increase the cost of the iPhone 17 that is set to be revealed in September 2025.

How much of an increase, however, we’ll have to wait to see. The Wall Street Journal says that Apple is looking to source more US iPhones from India as it has a much lower tariff than China does.

How many iPhone’s they managed to squeeze on these planes is unclear, but in 2024 alone, Apple sold over 200 million – that’s a lot of phones.

Apple isn’t the only company facing the impact of Trump’s tariffs, either. Nintendo has postponed pre-orders of the Switch 2 indefinitely in order to assess in the impact of the import tax on items coming from Vietnam.