Apple's Mac Pro Shipping Estimates in U.S. Move to 5-6 Weeks

MacRumors · Apr 1, 2014

Apple updated the shipping estimates for its new Mac Pro desktop, with the US store now providing a shipping target of 5 to 6 weeks for new orders with either stock or custom configurations. International stores still report April as an estimated ship date, but these dates are likely to change now that the month has officially started.

This is one of several recent changes Apple has made to Mac Pro shipping estimates, with the company showing both March and April shipping targets earlier this year. The change from a monthly window of approximately seven to eight weeks to a weekly window of five to six weeks suggests the company is starting to move toward a balance of supply and demand after the initial buying rush at launch.

We may hear more about the Mac Pro and its supply constraints later this month when Apple announces its earnings for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2014. Apple will hold its quarterly earnings conference call on April 23 at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific. MacRumors will provide coverage of both the earnings report and conference call at that time.

Article Link: Apple's Mac Pro Shipping Estimates in U.S. Move to 5-6 Weeks

applesith · Apr 1, 2014

And people wonder why iPhones and iPads can't be produced in the states...

Lone Deranger · Apr 1, 2014

Apple's handling of this situation is very disappointing.
3 whole months after their 'Shipping announcement' (which already was regrettably late in the year) and they still can't manage better than 5-6 weeks in the country of origin, let alone internationally.

Very disappointing indeed.

xlii · Apr 1, 2014

That is a long lead time. Is it because Apple underestimated the demand for the new mac pros and the parts just aren't in the supply chain? Or is there a design or manufacturing issue that we don't know about?

thejadedmonkey · Apr 1, 2014

applesith said:
And people wonder why iPhones and iPads can't be produced in the states...

Because we don't have manufacturing plants with thousands of trained workers ready to take on any job and ramp up in a week?

superliu · Apr 1, 2014

Funny if they announce a new design in June

iBungie · Apr 1, 2014

Still showing April in the UK store for MacPro
This is likely to change in light of this news

Update: now showing 5-6 weeks

DVNIEL · Apr 1, 2014

April Fool's? The article seems off because it makes it sound like this is actually an improvement.

Well, I planned on ordering one today and I'm still going to go through with it. I've waited this long so no need to prolong the break up.

scottwaugh · Apr 1, 2014

applesith said:
And people wonder why iPhones and iPads can't be produced in the states...

Why would the location of production have anything to do with what production capacity is?

Seems in the past, production limits were normally component driven with the product having unique components (which the Mac Pro has).

chirpie · Apr 1, 2014

applesith said:
And people wonder why iPhones and iPads can't be produced in the states...

This continues to be one of the stranger comments that pops up. Far more complicated things (manufacturing-wise) are made in far greater numbers in the US all the time.

EDIT for clarification:

I am referring to the Mac Pro. I think the jump from one to the other isn't comparable.

applesith · Apr 1, 2014

thejadedmonkey said:
Because we don't have manufacturing plants with thousands of trained workers ready to take on any job and ramp up in a week?

scottwaugh said:
Why would the location of production have anything to do with what production capacity is?

Seems in the past, production limits were normally component driven with the product having unique components (which the Mac Pro has).

We don't have the facilities or workforce to create such assemblies. We've moved away from an assembly line workforce and into more of a service-oriented workforce.

----------

chirpie said:
This continues to be one of the stranger comments that pops up. Far more complicated things (manufacturing-wise) are made in far greater numbers in the US all the time.

It's about production capacities, not how complicated a product is.

teknikal90 · Apr 1, 2014

April fools!

AppleWarMachine · Apr 1, 2014

Apple please keep it 'designed in California' and 'made in China'

nagromme · Apr 1, 2014

I'll take any improvement.

I want one bad. I need one bad! The 1850's iMac I'm replacing will not soldier on forever.

But if it's around a full month delayed, I may as well just wait on a (possible) new display. Why buy now if I can't have it now anyway? Better to wait a bit AND get a better display... maybe.

Eventually I will have to cave in.

Or TRY to wait for the second generation. This coming fall/winter?

teknikal90 · Apr 1, 2014

chirpie said:
This continues to be one of the stranger comments that pops up. Far more complicated things (manufacturing-wise) are made in far greater numbers in the US all the time.

like? I dont think the US has enough electronic engineers, let alone assembly line workers to fulfill the demands of 30 million iphones+ annually...

goobot · Apr 1, 2014

nagromme said:
The 1850's iMac I'm replacing will not soldier on forever.

1850's?

applesith · Apr 1, 2014

We already know why production would not be practical in the USA. This is not news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/b...queezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Supply chain management:

Technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.

Factories in Asia can scale up and down faster and Asian supply chains have surpassed whats in the U.S. The result is that we cant compete at this point, the executive said.

Apple needs to make a lot of devices to keep up with demand. The US doesn't have anything like a Foxconn. It's unrealistic to think there could be an equivilant production system in the USA that would benefit from the same econonmoes of scale Foxconn realizes.

Thats because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States... Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40 percent of the worlds consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.

Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apples executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The companys analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

In China, it took 15 days.

It's not about price.

But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans it would require transforming the national and global economies.

From Win to Mac · Apr 1, 2014

chirpie said:
This continues to be one of the stranger comments that pops up. Far more complicated things (manufacturing-wise) are made in far greater numbers in the US all the time.

Far more complicated things... Yes. I work in Aerospace & Defense.
Far greater numbers... Not really. Low rates, very high price, although that's not directly related to costs.

Nicky G · Apr 1, 2014

nagromme said:
I'll take any improvement.

I want one bad. I need one bad! The 1850's iMac I'm replacing will not soldier on forever.

But if it's around a full month delayed, I may as well just wait on a (possible) new display. Why buy now if I can't have it now anyway? Better to wait a bit AND get a better display... maybe.

Eventually I will have to cave in.

Or TRY to wait for the second generation. This coming fall/winter?

It's not an improvement, if they said April yesterday, this is not better! The article summary is incorrect.

69650 · Apr 1, 2014

WTF. Absolutely pathetic. Somebody should get fired for this shambles.

Not a great advert for American manufacturing.

jonnysods · Apr 1, 2014

I wonder what Steve would say.

There must be some supply constraint that we just don't know about, I wonder what component is causing the headaches.

jmoore5196 · Apr 1, 2014

Not a great advert for Apple, and I'm an unabashed Apple fanboy.

Product announcement last summer; availability announced late in 2013. Orders started in early 2014, and still these delivery timeframe constraints.

As previous posters have noted, Apple either misjudged the market for the MP or there are serious manufacturing challenges they don't care to share with us.

Either way, a product rollout like this is ... well, it's something Microsoft might have done. I expected more from Apple.

proline · Apr 1, 2014

chirpie said:
This continues to be one of the stranger comments that pops up. Far more complicated things (manufacturing-wise) are made in far greater numbers in the US all the time.

Sure, but these "far more complicated things" that are produced in the US are produced at facilities that can't ramp production up or down with any speed or in any reasonable time frame. This is a real problem for consumer electronics where demand fluctuates rapidly and a big reason why nobody sane makes electronics in the states.

The inflexibility of US workers, unions, labour laws, etc. may be good for some people and may be OK in industries with steady demand such as cars and airplanes. However, in other ways it really limits the US economy. Its not just that it chased almost all electronics manufacturing overseas, it also is severely constraining sales of successful US products. Take the Tesla for example. They could be selling twice as many but ramping production in the US up to the demand will take two years or more, making the wait for a Mac Pro seem rather brief.

td2243 · Apr 1, 2014

I'm so glad I ordered a refurb iMac. I could have used the extra MP power, but the wait time is terrible for such an expensive item. They really need to get it together. I'll probably upgrade to the next version of the MP, but at this rate I'm guessing those won't be released for two years.

JoEw · Apr 1, 2014

Is it bad I don't really care where my Apple products are made?
Sure I want worker conditions to be better and labor laws, but the United States has plenty of low end/uneducated jobs, our issue is we don't have educated people to fill all our higher end/bachelors + masters jobs.

We are a developed rich nation, we should not still need these manufacturing jobs.

Apple's Mac Pro Shipping Estimates in U.S. Move to 5-6 Weeks

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