Strategic Intelligence: Consumer Electronics Sector Scorecard Q2 2025 Update

April’s “Liberation Day” tariffs imposed a baseline 10% on imports to the US, with China-specific levies spiking to 145% before being trimmed to 30% during a 90‑day pause. Smartphones, laptops, and other devices initially faced blanket inclusion until mid-April exclusion announcements. In response, Apple, which still stands to be more severely impacted by tariffs, disclosed that it expected a $900 million cost hit in Q2 2025. It also promptly air-freighted $2 billion-worth of iPhones from India to the US, while accelerating India and Vietnam production to sidestep China-centric duties. In May 2025, Foxconn announced a $1.5 billion investment in India to move Apple’s production away from China.

Tariffs will remain a structural cost variable in H2 2025. Consumer electronics firms should expect volatility tied to geopolitical realignment, with nearshoring and friendshoring becoming permanent features of supply chain strategy, rather than stopgap responses. Consumer device sales spikes will persist as consumers attempt to circumvent future tariff changes.

Scope

• This sector scorecard provides a top-down, comprehensive outlook for the key players in the consumer electronics sector over the next two years, based on the key themes set to transform their industry landscape.

Reasons to Buy

• Companies that invest in the right themes become success stories. Those that miss the important themes in their industry end up as failures.
• The analyst's thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition and secure that all-important competitive advantage.
• The analyst has developed a unique thematic methodology for ranking all major companies in all major sectors based on their relative strength in the big themes that are impacting their industries.
• First, we identify the top 10 themes transforming a sector across four categories (tech, macro, industry, and ESG). We also rank themes in order of priority by examining activity levels across 200 million alternative data signals, including patents, jobs, deals, filings, social media, and news.
• Second, we research each theme in detail, examining the value chain, key players, and trends. Additionally, we examine the impact of each theme across the 20 industries we cover. Our 200 million signals help identify the leading adopters of a theme in each sector.
• Finally, using our sector scorecards, we rank the companies most likely to succeed in a sector over the next five years.