Acer to hike US laptop prices by 10% in response to Trump tariffs

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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What just happened? One of the world's largest PC makers has warned that prices for laptops sold in the US will soon be going up in response to Trump administration tariffs. Longtime Acer CE Jason Chen told The Telegraph that his company would have to adjust the end-user price of laptops – likely by 10 percent. The "default price increase" is directly related to the import tax, he said, adding that it's "very straightforward."

Acer's higher prices will go into effect starting in March, Chen noted.

A 10 percent price hike may not sound like much, but it could drive up the cost of a laptop by several hundred dollars depending on the base price. The most expensive laptop on Acer's online store right now, the Predator Helios 18 gaming laptop, has a list price of $3,099. A 10 percent increase would push your total out of pocket to over $3,400.

The 10 percent figure is just a baseline. According to Chen, however, some companies could very well use the tariffs as an excuse to raise their prices beyond what is needed to cover the fee and pocket the rest.

Chen said Acer would consider moving laptop manufacturing out of China – and perhaps to the US – in response to the tariffs. The company did something similar with desktop manufacturing after Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff during his first term in office.

The Consumer Technology Association believes Trump tariffs wills have a significant impact on electronics sold in the US. Consumer purchasing power could decline by $90-143 billion, the CTA warned. Sales of laptops and tablets could dip by 68 percent, game console sales could drop by 58 percent, and smartphone sales could decline by 38 percent.

CTA VP of trade, Ed Brzytwa, said retaliation against trading partners raises costs, disrupts supply chains, and hurts the competitiveness of US industries. CTA CEO Gary Shapiro agreed, adding that tariffs are a tax on American businesses and consumers.

Image credit: Raphael Brasileiro, Andrew Neel

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Acer to hike US laptop prices by 10% in response to Trump tariffs

 
Keep in mind that MSRP has nothing to do with tariffs. It goes MSRP+tariffs=final price. So unless Acer expects a 10% decrease in sales, this a greed only move.
 
The Talking Tech said:
As the report states, "This is in Response to TRUMP'S Tariffs"

Can't blame companies for Trump's terrible decisions.
Click to expand...
Maybe you aren't from the US, but the sales price is the the listed price+tax=final price. So Acer's prices are MSRP+10%+tariffs= final price.
 
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yRaz said:
Keep in mind that MSRP has nothing to do with tariffs. It goes MSRP+tariffs=final price. So unless Acer expects a 10% decrease in sales, this a greed only move.
Click to expand...
Tariffs are paid when importing the product and it is up to the business whether the MSRP of their products will change. The article is literally Acer stating that they are raising all of their MSRPs by 10% starting in March.
 
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mcnabney said:
Tariffs are paid when importing the product and it is up to the business whether the MSRP of their products will change. The article is literally Acer stating that they are raising all of their MSRPs by 10% starting in March.
Click to expand...
Acer doesn't pay the tax, the people importing their products do. So if BestBuy wants to import Acer products, BestBuy pays the tariffs and that gets passed onto the consumer. So BestBuys WholeSale price goes up when importing that. Now is Acer taking the hit? No. BestBuy has to pay it. So maybe BestBuy would add 10% to MSRP.

The thing is, will BestBuy add 10% on top of that and call it tariffs? Thing is, we don't know what kind of deal retailers make with wholesalers and who is paying what. I've been saying for a long time that what's going to happen with tariffs os that everyone tries to sneak in an extra percent or two at every step of the process instead of "the product is 10% more expensive now.

It gives everyone on every link of the supply chain and opportunity to raise prices and blame tariffs
 
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If a company like Acer wants to bypass the tariffs they can make their products here and create American jobs or the American companies that are shipping manufacturing jobs overseas, they can bring all that manufacturing back. Seems like a simple proposition.
 
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rhavenn said:
Oh, look. It's a double standard. I remember 6+ months of people railing on Biden and why isn't he making egg prices go down. If you don't, I suggest a check up with your doctor
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You have the mindset that "everything" is all Trumps fault. Yes, Biden did create the inflation problem and didn't fix it. We were all gaslighted to oblivion that high inflation and high grocery prices weren't real. What were we told? The economy is great, the rest of us low life minions don't know what we're talking about.
 
yRaz said:
Acer doesn't pay the tax, the people importing their products do. So if BestBuy wants to import Acer products, BestBuy pays the tariffs and that gets passed onto the consumer. So BestBuys WholeSale price goes up when importing that. Now is Acer taking the hit? No. BestBuy has to pay it. So maybe BestBuy would add 10% to MSRP.

The thing is, will BestBuy add 10% on top of that and call it tariffs? Thing is, we don't know what kind of deal retailers make with wholesalers and who is paying what. I've been saying for a long time that what's going to happen with tariffs os that everyone tries to sneak in an extra percent or two at every step of the process instead of "the product is 10% more expensive now.

It gives everyone on every link of the supply chain and opportunity to raise prices and blame tariffs
Click to expand...

Stop making so much sense, you're being ridiculous.
 
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GABulldog said:
You have the mindset that "everything" is all Trumps fault. Yes, Biden did create the inflation problem and didn't fix it. We were all gaslighted to oblivion that high inflation and high grocery prices weren't real. What were we told? The economy is great, the rest of us low life minions don't know what we're talking about.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, what? No, that's literally the GOP mantra: Blame the Democrats while we (the GOP; Gaslight, Obstruct, Project) screw over everyone except the 1%. That's what they've been doing since the 80s.

Also, no, I don't actually blame Trump for the price of eggs directly (bird flu is the main culprit), but he's doing a good job of ensuring inflation happens and a possible depression are coming vs. Biden was actually bringing inflation down which was caused by the COVID era policies that ensure we didn't just go off the rails completely at that time. They were a necessary evil to make sure the economy didn't just collapse during covid.

The economy was doing fine under Biden if you're a stock market person or investor. Egg prices were coming down, etc....not that the GOP were helping any, but the reason your other costs haven't come "down" has more to do with your wage not increasing with inflation more than anything else and the GOP loves to block any sort of wage policies, unions or anything else that could force companies to increase their wages. The fact is, large corporations drive a profit margin for their shareholders and if cutting a few people and hiring a H1B over higher cost onshore people that's what they're going to do.

Trump isn't going to make the cost of goods / housing / whatever cheaper for you and he's certainly not going to push to have you paid more, so not sure what you think is going to happen.
 
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Acer will lose business.
I remember when they talk of "The fair tax", using their math, 22/23% of retail price is due to tax.
So the fair tax would reduce the cost, which would drop the retail price 22/23%
People say but what if the businesses don't drop their prices, in hopes of making 22/23% more in profit?
Well, then their goods would be 22/23% higher than similar goods.
 
GABulldog said:
Egg prices going up have nothing to do with Trump, SMH
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Of course not. Nothing bad that ever happens has anything to do with Trump even if he personally caused the problem. But when something good happens, like the way the Biden administration managed to handle the fallout and inflation caused by Trump's handling of COVID then yes it's 100% because of Trump.

Facts. Trump literally said this a few years back. When the stock market goes up it's because of him. When it goes down it has nothing to do with him, it's the fault of someone else, usually Clinton, Obama, Biden, the deep state, etc. take your pick.
 
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GABulldog said:
Yes, Biden did create the inflation problem and didn't fix it. We were all gaslighted to oblivion that high inflation and high grocery prices weren't real. What were we told? The economy is great, the rest of us low life minions don't know what we're talking about.
Click to expand...
Dude, you need to get your head checked. Seriously. Inflation was caused by COVID. Who was president during COVID? Yeah, that's what I thought. So how exactly did Biden create the inflation when the economy was already in the gutter when he took over?

Just about EVERY country in the world is having inflation issues because of COVID. They had lockdowns and governments were spending crazy amounts of money to keep their economies from collapsing. You can try and blame it on Biden until you turn blue in the face.

Fact: the US managed the inflation fallout the best, but that's not to say it wasn't painful. The US economy had the highest growth rate of any country in the world in the last couple of years. Look it up. The US is still the richest country in the world and is still doing better than most countries whose economy is still recovering from COVID. Fox News filled your head with nonsense about the whole thing though, I'm sure of that.

I'm so sick and tired of Americans always whining and complaining. Boo-hoo, everything is so expensive, boo-hoo every country is taking advantage of America, boo-hoo all them immigrants are stealing your jobs. Get over yourselves already.
 
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The 10% increase Acer is blaming on tariffs is actually a result of Trump closing loopholes in the trade agreement with China. China was exploiting the loopholes to their benefit (and who can blame them?).
Given Acer's BOM and low labor costs, they are overpriced to begin with. Acer can live with the closed loophole or move-their choice. All businesses in China who export to the US will be affected.
The US has a trade deficit with almost every country it trades with because other countries tariff American products to hell and back. Trump's new reciprocal tariff policy is to tariff each country according to that country's tariff on US products. Simple and fair. Even Apple is not escaping the tariff-there is talk of them moving back to the US in the near future, along with many other overseas businesses. I find it amusing most social justice warriors would not buy an Acer but are outraged on behalf of someone that might.
 
yRaz said:
Keep in mind that MSRP has nothing to do with tariffs. It goes MSRP+tariffs=final price. So unless Acer expects a 10% decrease in sales, this a greed only move.
Click to expand...
Nope, not at all. MSRP is the manufacturer's suggested retail price, and reflects all the costs incurred over the manufacturing and sales process, including import tariffs, as well as an average markup by retailers. It does not include sales tax (in the US).
You're confusing it with the invoice price, which is the price retailers pay the supplier.
 
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psyte said:
Nope, not at all. MSRP is the manufacturer's suggested retail price, and reflects all the costs incurred over the manufacturing and sales process, including import tariffs, as well as an average markup by retailers. It does not include sales tax (in the US).
You're confusing it with the invoice price, which is the price retailers pay the supplier.
Click to expand...
In all fairness, Google disagrees with you.

Q: Does MSRP include import tariffs?

A: "No, the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) does not include import tariffs. MSRP is the price that the manufacturer suggests for a vehicle before taxes and fees. Tariffs are taxes that governments impose on imported goods."
 
The Talking Tech said:
As the report states, "This is in Response to TRUMP'S Tariffs"

Can't blame companies for Trump's terrible decisions.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I can. When you profit 200% before tariffs and can't fathom profitting only 175% after tariffs and still want everyones money so you increase the prices...that's on the company, not Donald Trump. Price increases for electronics after tariffs are completely optional unless you don't want to make "as much" when you've already been milking everyone for every cent the entire time.

If companies want to act like this and try to make us think they're losing money because of tariffs and increase prices as their little crybaby response, then so be it. Don't buy any of this garbage anymore until they lower it back down. It will happen or they'll die, it's that simple.

Companies will either deal with decreased sales or move their company into America itself or simply go away. Y'all don't need any of this stuff and if you do you've had a year or so to buy it before the price increases so it's basically on you unless some sort of accident/emergency happens but I doubt not having tariffs really fixes the root of that issue so...

Everybody has a phone. Practically everyone has a computer. If you have a phone, you don't need a computer. If you have neither...well tariffs aren't your main problem and not having them isn't going to fix your life or even let it begin.
 
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Why is it that one of the words Trump seems to mention the most while in office is "tariff"? Does he not know of anything else? Then again, I think I can answer my own questions.
 
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NSc96 said:
Why is it that one of the words Trump seems to mention the most while in office is "tariff"? Does he not know of anything else? Then again, I think I can answer my own questions.
Click to expand...

It's not as if he has ever had an extensive vocabulary. I know five year olds who are more articulate, lucid and coherent than he is LMAO.

TBH It's refreshing that the US is so open to diversity! It didn't have enough alcoholics, drug addicts, felons, imbeciles and narcissistic sociopaths in government positions (not necessarily elected of course) before, but now the GOP has bravely made sure the average 'merkin is more than well represented in the halls of power. Bravo! 🤣👌🏾
 
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