Buy Your Hardware NOW Before Prices Skyrocket

As a provider of information technology services and support, a big part of our job is helping the businesses we work with make the best decisions regarding their critical IT. This responsibility means we often provide an advisory role to business leaders.

In that role, we strongly advise that you make any intended technology purchases and upgrades right now… because if you wait, you may have no good options left.

Let’s discuss why this is the situation we’re all facing and why you may want to consider making such investments right now.

Please remember that we are technology professionals and are in no way trying to advise you as business finance professionals. This is not official business advice at all. All we are trying to do is give you a heads-up on what we anticipate the next few months and year might look like concerning your business technology and any relevant opportunities you may have been considering. 

Why Computer Components are Likely Going to Skyrocket in Price

For months now, the president-elect has shared his intention to establish 10-20% tariffs on goods from any other country on Earth and additional tariffs of 60% on any goods coming in from China, specifically. Most of the gadgets we all use daily—especially the computer hardware that business workstations rely on—use components manufactured in other countries, including China.

It also isn’t as though shifting an entire manufacturing infrastructure to a new location is possible, at least not so quickly.

A collaboration between the Consumer Technology Association (the CTA) and analyst group Trade Partnership Worldwide (TPW) revealed that this would create cost increases of about: 

• 45% for laptops
• 25.8% for smartphones
• 31.2% for monitors

Prebuilt desktop PCs might be relatively safe, as they are primarily manufactured outside of China, but even they are projected to see a 6% increase in price. Unfortunately, the United States tablet and laptop market would be hit the hardest, as 79% of them come from China and would be subject to the full 70% tariff.

Speaking of which, we need to address who really pays for these tariff-fueled price increases.

Predictably, These Cost Increases Would Fall On Normal People and Small Businesses 

Various economists have chimed in with their predictions of this policy's impact, many explicitly pointing out the effect on the U.S.’s gross domestic product. 

The aforementioned CTA/TPW collaboration predicted that electronics would incur a collective cost increase of $90 billion each year, while others have predicted that exports would decrease precipitously and consumer costs would increase—all without the job creation that these tariffs are intended to bring in the first place.

Erica York of the Tax Foundation has written that the proposed tariffs would ultimately impact all imports by rising rates to Great Depression levels. 

Furthermore, the Tax Foundation has estimated a loss to the Gross Domestic Product of 0.8%, and if the original proposal is followed, 1.3% losses will be incurred. If other countries strike back with a 10% tariff, the U.S. GDP could be reduced by 1.7%, and 1.4 million full-time jobs would be lost.

Why You Need to Worry About Cost Increases, Whether Tariffs Happen or Not

One thing that most economists agree on, however, is that tariffs impose most of their impacts on consumers… which will directly impact small and even medium-sized businesses as these consumers need to budget more stringently.

After all, the costs associated with tariffs are often passed down from the importer to the customer… particularly impacting those who fall into lower income brackets. What’s worse, these costs can be inflated by distributors attempting to boost their profits and domestic producers feeling free to raise prices with impunity as tariffs block more and more foreign sources of the same or comparable goods. 

Of course, there is always the chance that these price increases will happen regardless of whether any tariffs materialize… precisely why Southern New England businesses need to be proactive about upgrading their technology before any of these impacts come to fruition.

Now is the Time to Buy Your Computers, Servers, and Network Equipment, Instead of Waiting Later on This Year

Reach Out to Us to Help Expedite Your Upgrade Process

We want to help your business stay ahead of the issues that tariffs, potential and actual, could easily create for you, particularly in terms of your IT and its maintenance over time. Give us a call as soon as possible to get started at (774) 213-9701.