Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,290
30,375



Yesterday, a survey published yesterday by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster stated that the iPhone 5s is approaching 90% availability in Apple's U.S. retail stores, with supply begin to match consumer demand of the device.

Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the shortened wait times for the high-end iPhone is due in part to supplier Foxconn and its high volume production, with the company adding more workers to its assembly lines in China as its overall production capacity grows.

iphone5s1-800x533.jpg
The Taiwan-based contract manufacturer, which has more than one million workers in China, has operated 100 production lines around the clock in Zhengzhou, north central China, at full capacity, according to executives at Hon Hai. The company has about 300,000 workers at its Zhengzhou site, dedicated to just making the iPhone 5S and key components such as metal casings.

To get a glimpse of just how complicated it is to manufacture the iPhone 5S, Hon Hai executives said the company has about 600 workers on each iPhone 5S production line to handle assembly work.

"We have been churning out about 500,000 iPhone 5Ss everyday, the highest daily output ever," said the executive who declined to be named.
The executive cited in the report also stated that it takes a longer time to assemble an iPhone 5s compared to the iPhone 5c or previous generation iPhone 5, with only 500 workers per production line to assemble the two lower-end devices.

Notably, a report from Digitimes earlier this month stated that the Zhengzhou factory would be ceasing production of the iPhone 5c to shift the facility's manufacturing efforts toward the iPhone 5s. Foxconn was also previously estimated to be operating at only a minimum capacity of 8-9,000 iPhone 5c units per day.

Originally released in September, supplies of the iPhone 5s remained somewhat constrained following the launch, with the bulk of stock tending to go to Apple's own retail stores. However, while supplies continued to be scarce during September and October, they have appeared to generally improved throughout November, with several colors and capacities of the iPhone 5s available for immediate pick up in Apple Stores in the United States.

Article Link: Foxconn Adds More Workers to Assembly Lines as iPhone 5s Supplies Continue to Improve
 

sethlution

macrumors regular
Dec 13, 2011
202
48
500,000 iPhones per day? That's one crazy production rate :eek: What's even more amazing is the fact that it still hasn't caught up with demand 100% yet. I guess Apple is really doom this time :rolleyes:
 

osx11

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2011
825
0
I wonder if Apple could still make A profit if it manufactured all its hardware in the U.S.!?!?!?
 

mw360

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2010
2,032
2,395
"Foxconn Adds More Workers to Assembly Lines as iPhone 5s Supplies Continue to Improve"

Cause and effect seems a bit muddled there.
 

osx11

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2011
825
0
500,000 iPhones per day? That's one crazy production rate :eek: What's even more amazing is the fact that it still hasn't caught up with demand 100% yet. I guess Apple is really doom this time :rolleyes:

That's about:

180,000,000 per year
15,000,000 per month
3,500,000 per week
21,000 per hour
350 per minute
6 per second

CRAZY:D
 

diazj3

macrumors 6502a
Jan 19, 2008
879
135
ahhh!... we consumers are heroes! more $2usd/hour jobs to better this world and help the chinese. Now, chop-chop... Hurry! I need my new iCrap with next day shipping, or else thanksgiving will be a bore!!!

[/sarcasm]
 

WaxedJacket

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
690
1,071
Apple, the 5c is a bust. Never offer a poverty product to compete with a flag ship again.
 

lukarak

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2011
180
4
Apple, the 5c is a bust. Never offer a poverty product to compete with a flag ship again.

If the offered the iphone 5, many of the 5S customers would buy the 5 instead of the 5S :D. Margins are better on the 5S, so they made the right decision. The product may be a flop, but it fulfiled its purpose.
 

James717

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2013
162
10
Apple, the 5c is a bust. Never offer a poverty product to compete with a flag ship again.


Only it wasn't a poverty product.

It was one small rung below the main product.

At that difference, it was sure to fail.

But the iPad Air and the iPad Mini may break that trend.
 

polterbyte

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2012
353
538
Brazil
The 5c is as much as flop as the 4s was a flop AFTER the iPhone 5 was launched. And even at that, much less so, after all it sold over 3 million units on the first weekend alone.

How much demand was there for the 4s this time last year? Much less than the demand for the 5c right now, I'd wager.

What people must understand is that the 5c is not a new product: it's a watered down (plastic cover), glittered up (colors, ads) version of the iPhone 5.

It's selling exactly as well as it is expected to.
 

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
500,000 iPhones per day? That's one crazy production rate :eek: What's even more amazing is the fact that it still hasn't caught up with demand 100% yet. I guess Apple is really doom this time :rolleyes:

Shh...don't try to explain supply-demand issues here, you'll get attacked by "smart" people.
 

Actarus

macrumors member
Feb 10, 2011
89
10
What people must understand is that the 5c is not a new product: it's a watered down (plastic cover), glittered up (colors, ads) version of the iPhone 5.

It's selling exactly as well as it is expected to.

Then, Why slowing down the production? It's clear that their prediction failed, they expected better sales for this model. 100$ less for the unlocked model and problem solved.
 

dumastudetto

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2013
4,990
7,130
Los Angeles, USA
Then, Why slowing down the production? It's clear that their prediction failed, they expected better sales for this model. 100$ less for the unlocked model and problem solved.

I'm 100% sure Apple has far exceeded all expected sales of the iPhone 5c. It just doesn't appeal to the MacRumors demographic but I can tell you the 5c is outselling all Android phones easily.
 

Pakaku

macrumors 68040
Aug 29, 2009
3,120
4,359
I just want the 5S internals inside a 5C case. The yellow plastic case speaks to me.
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,020
7,863
Then, Why slowing down the production? It's clear that their prediction failed, they expected better sales for this model. 100$ less for the unlocked model and problem solved.

Because apparently the 5s is selling better than Apple expected.

Your proposed pricing would work only if they dropped the 4s. Since they have not done so, it seems Apple believes that they are getting better results selling the 4s for $450 than they would selling the 5c for $450. There is also the issue of cannibalization. They don't want the 5c to cannibalize sales of the 5s. A $200 differential might do so. Also, selling last year's iPhone 5 alongside the 5s might have done so (for people primarily concerned about the fancy case).

We'll know how well the 5c fit into Apple's product plans next year when they release the iPhone 6. With rumors of larger screen devices it will be interesting to see what gets positioned at the mid-range next year, and whether the iPhone goes the way of the iPad this year and offers substantially similar models in two different sizes. In any case, Apple could either keep the 5s in its current form, or they could put the 5s internals into the 5c frame, in both instances pushing the 5c to the low end. Whichever way they go would be a sign as to whether the plastic iPhone is a long term product or just a two year experiment.

----------

I just want the 5S internals inside a 5C case. The yellow plastic case speaks to me.

Interestingly, according to the rumors that's the model selling the slowest.
 

iapplelove

Suspended
Nov 22, 2011
5,324
7,638
East Coast USA
The 5c is as much as flop as the 4s was a flop AFTER the iPhone 5 was launched. And even at that, much less so, after all it sold over 3 million units on the first weekend alone.

How much demand was there for the 4s this time last year? Much less than the demand for the 5c right now, I'd wager.

What people must understand is that the 5c is not a new product: it's a watered down (plastic cover), glittered up (colors, ads) version of the iPhone 5.

It's selling exactly as well as it is expected to.

i'm still surprised so few understand this.
 

proline

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2012
630
1
Apple, the 5c is a bust. Never offer a poverty product to compete with a flag ship again.
Now now, which is more likely, the most profitable tech company in history doesn't understand how to price their products, or some anonymous commenter doesn't understand the whole picture? You have no idea how many sales Apple expected or what role it was meant to play. None. The 5C may well have been intended to drive people up to the 5S. It may also be an experiment towards an even lower cost phone in 2014. What it most certainly wasn't intended to be was Apple's #1 phone. Had Apple been selling the 5 instead, there would likely be less professionals buying the 5S and their margins on the midrange would be worse.

As for the much touted production cuts, demand is always greatest at the start of the product cycle. Production cuts are therefore inevitable and will affect the 5S within the next couple months as well. Keep in mind that these production disaster stories were generally wrong last year when, against all the rumors, the 5 sold well all year. Even with the rumored cuts, the 5C is still being produced at 5-10 million per quarter- more than most other companies flagship products. That's some failure.
 

Mr Fusion

macrumors 6502a
May 7, 2007
841
1,061
WORK FASTER MINIONS!!! There's middle-upper class children in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton that haven't received their Goldpagne 5S yet!!!

;)
 

everything-i

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2012
827
2
London, UK
I wonder if Apple could still make A profit if it manufactured all its hardware in the U.S.!?!?!?

Maybe but the main problem is no where in the US is set up to match production of this volume.

----------

Apple, the 5c is a bust. Never offer a poverty product to compete with a flag ship again.

It is still selling more than the 4S did when the 5 came out and gets round the big manufacturing problems of the 5 so in all ways that matter its a success.
 

Constable Odo

macrumors 6502
Mar 28, 2008
483
268
It's likely Samsung can produce about 800,000 to 1 million smartphones daily without even breaking a sweat. Apple's iPhones are far too complicated to compete against a company like Samsung who make their designs easy to produce and assemble. A Galaxy S smartphone back is just a simple piece of plastic whereas an iPhone has a fully CNC-milled out back made of aluminum. Consumers don't even care because most like plastic as much as they like metal. Wall Street doesn't care because cheaper and faster is better for investors. Apple is definitely taking the mountain road while Samsung is running on a level road. There's little appreciation for a company willing to spend extra time and effort on building a product. It's all about high production numbers to excite the big money. Whichever company produces the most product for the least amount of money is automatically declared the winner.
 

SactoGuy18

macrumors 601
Sep 11, 2006
4,311
1,475
Sacramento, CA USA
A big issue with supply of the iPhone 5s was the inordinately heavy demand for the "champagne gold" case version of the phone. It's actually easier to get the other case color iPhone 5s models.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.