Apple Working 'Really, Really Hard' to Remedy Supply Constraints on iPhones, Macs, iPads and Some Apple Watches

[coredev]

Are you telling me that a billion dollar company, year after year after year, doesn't not know how to stock up??🙄

They know how to stock up, but on average they are selling more than a million iPhones a day. That quantity has to be produced and stored somewhere, and in addition to that launch week demand is likely a lot higher.
Btw, Apple is a trillion dollar company by now. Doesn't mean that laws of scale and physics don't apply to them.

 

[satchmo]

Ordered iPad Pro in early Oct but wasn’t going to arrive until Nov 4-12

Canceled and went with iPad Air which was scheduled to arrive Nov 16-19

Next day I checked online store again (using Siri shortcut no less), and it was available in local Apple store.

Canceled my online order and placed a new order for pickup the same day.

My point is to check regularly as Apple seems to be getting shipments in on a daily basis.

 

[TantalizedMind]

My iPhone XR works just fine.

 

[Nicole1980]

Considering there is a PANdemic that no one could have seen coming I think they are doing pretty good.

Well, it has 'been coming' since december. So its not exactly like theyre being blindsided by the virus at this point.
Either way, I'll say that no company wants to 'stock up' too much. Thats not good supply chain management either

 

[SchrodingersMartian]

Really? Really? What about the past 10 years every year when there wasnt one?

Lets agree to disagree and leave it at that. I have never brought into that theory honestly it feels like folks are trying to find a reason to complain about Apple. Anyway go live your best life because this is the first and last comment I will make about this absurd supply chain conspiracy theory people have.

 

[kazmac]

Up the build quality and control, I’ll happily wait a few more weeks for whatever Apple product I am ordering.

 

[madgick]

Well I’ll help the demand situation by returning my iPhone 12. I’ve been using it about a week now and I barely see a difference from my iPhone X. I feel silly for paying so much for not really any change

 

[garycjohnson]

Multiple Apple products are seeing supply constraints, including the new iPhone 12 models, Macs, iPads, and some Apple Watch models. Apple CEO Tim Cook today told investors that Apple is "working really, really hard" to remedy the supply issues.

Several of Apple's iPhone 12 and 12 Pro models sold out within a few hours of launch, and many new orders are now shipping out later in November. We can likely expect to see similar constraints for the upcoming iPhone 12 Pro Max and 12 mini, as these devices were held back due to rumored production issues that required Apple to wait to build up enough supply.

Given the situation with iPhone 12 and 12 Pro pre-orders, those planning to purchase a 12 mini or 12 Pro Max should plan to do so right when pre-orders go live on Friday, November 6 at 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

As for the Mac and iPad, there have been long shipping delays on some models throughout the last several months, and many Apple Watch models also sold out quickly after launch in September.

Article Link: Apple Working 'Really, Really Hard' to Remedy Supply Constraints on iPhones, Macs, iPads and Some Apple Watches

When I ordered my Apple Watch on 17th September the delivery date was the week of 27th October. That has now moved out to an expected delivery date in the week of 23rd November.

I don’t think I’ve had this happen before and fingers crossed it won’t happen again.

Melbourne, Australia.

 

[Musocat]

He seems to have done well in Los Angeles anyway - every model and color of the 12 and 12 Pro except the 512GB one is available to be picked up in store tomorrow. The 12 Pro I ordered arrived more than a week earlier than they said it would.

 

[hans1972]

PANdemic? This has nothing to do with the Pandemic,..where was the Pandemic last year and the year before, and year before that? Stock is ALWAYS either unavailable or sold out on release....ALWAYS! As I said, Apple always tries to produce just enough stock to sell, so their loyal customers ALWAYS have to wait. This is what creates the excitement and FOMO..

Look up JIT production.

The purpose is not to drive up demand but to reduce costs. Inventory is the big enemy and costs money.

 

[hans1972]

so Apple should be impacted more than other businesses becuase a lot of iPhones are shipped by air, but for other products it doesn’t make much sense, unless of course those Chinese stats are missing something.

Most of the parts comes from outside China.

F.ex. Apples has their paper supplier in northern Sweden for some of their packaging.

 

[hans1972]

Yeah, there is a supply chain issue every single time they have a new product come out. If it was only this year I could agree but its not its every single year.
so go stock up on ur mountain bike brake pads

It is not there to try to create a demand. It is to do with JIT production philosophy and to reduce costs.

Apple chooses to have little inventory since inventory is expensive. So you will never see Apple produce 40 million iPhones upfront and store them just so that every customer can get their iPhone the first week after a release.

Apple will produce maybe 5 million iPhones upfront and just let customers wait.

 

[Maximara]

PANdemic? This has nothing to do with the Pandemic,..where was the Pandemic last year and the year before, and year before that? Stock is ALWAYS either unavailable or sold out on release....ALWAYS! As I said, Apple always tries to produce just enough stock to sell, so their loyal customers ALWAYS have to wait. This is what creates the excitement and FOMO..

Look up JIT production sometime. As an accountant I can tell you warehouse space isn't cheap.

 

[I7guy]

I don't mind tight supply, what I mind is that they don't rush manufacturing over quality control. When I finally receive my iPhones, I want it a working phone with a perfect display. I don't want green splotches, I don't want a dead battery, I don't want a scratched screen, I don't want wifi dropping signals.

I agree. However the reality is, when tens of millions of units are manufactured there is an acceptable rate of a poorly manufactured product that goes out the door. Slowing down the manufacturing process wouldn't really help, because there is the possibility that product breaks in transit. That is why there are manufacturers warranties.

Also software issues, at times, are configuration and usage based. One persons' issues are not another and while it's great to opine for the perfect product (cars are a great example), things happen.