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Estimated Supply of iPhone X on Launch Day Revised Down to Just Over 12 Million Units
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It's not so much supply channel problems as supplier manufacturing issues. The more advanced the tech gets, the harder to make it in the crazy quantities Apple requires.
I think this is really old news. It happens every year. We hear about a tech issue with the new iPhone in June/July and close to pre-order only to find out later that the issues actually occurred months and months prior to it hitting the press.
Fear not. Every Apple engineer with a passport has probably been in China for a while trying to work out the manufacturing issue with suppliers. Remember this story?
"When in a meeting discussing a problem in China, Tim Cook noted that the problem was “really bad” and that someone should be in China fixing it. Thirty minutes later, Cook then famously looked over at Apple’s operations manager, Sabih Khan, and asked “Why are you still here?” Khan was on the next flight to China."
well they don't charge until they ship, so those wouldn't necessarily be sales
I am trying to follow your logic but it doesn't make sense - Apple sold 74.8 on Q1 2016 - and this year the market is expecting more - say 78m-80m - so you are saying that the market will be happy if they are sold out for the entire quarter and they don't beat last years' number - I am not a stock analyst but my guess is the market will react violently if Apple reports anything less than 78M+
And there are only around 7.5 billion people living in the world right now. Go figure, huh?
The sad thing is that the anticipated demand, combined with the small quantity of "only" 12 million units to be made by launch day, means that the poor factory employees who are manufacturing these things are going to be subjected to even greater stress and de-humanzing demands on their time and stamina. With the number of workers Foxconn and the other iPhone manufacturers employ, I can almost guarantee that the big push is going to directly or indirectly cause the death of someone on that line.
Just something for we first-world citizens to contemplate while we enjoy our shiny new gadgets.
No, actually they don't. Several different people that work in Apple retail have told me that this attitude is changing, largely in response to last year. Apple doesn't want long lines of people that are turned away due to no inventory. Last year, because there were zero 7 Plus in stores for the first few weeks, there would be lines every day, and every day Apple was sending retail employees out to either take an order from someone, or send them home.
Ditto. If the X wasn't in the picture, I probably would have upgraded to the 8 Plus. If, for some reason, I won't be able to get my hands on the X within a reasonable amount of time, I'll probably skip this upgrade cycle altogether. I'm not interested in settling for something that I don't really want.
And to think, my alma mater, that tiny Jesuit school in Spokane named Gonzaga, birthed this meme!
FIX IT APPLE. FIX IT.
Nope, this is the incredibly cliché conspiracy theory which doesn't follow any real world logic. Apple's isn't making a dime more by not fulfilling orders. They are instead losing money. Firstly, the sooner they can ship, the sooner they can report the sales. Second, the longer it takes for them to be able to fulfill the demand for the $1000+ phone, the more likely a customer is to go with a less expensive iPhone 8, or worse, a competitor.
It's a gamble that will pay off handsomely for Apple's management, stockholders and customers. So what if it takes Apple a couple of months to catch up with demand? The X is going to sell really well. I wish I could buy more stock. It's the least risky bet in the tech business.
Cook hasn't been in charge of that stuff since becoming CEO in what, summer 2011?
Man, that's over 40 dog years ago!
Perhaps they need to stop announcing all their new phones at one time a year, and spread them out. Plus stop all their secrecy attempts. All it seems to do is make them wait until the last minute to order parts.
The money gets taken out of your account when it ships. On my preorder of the 6 Plus that I got in time for release day delivery, it shipped from China on Monday with a Friday delivery date and I was charged on Monday.
Basically if you can get it in-store before the preorder goes into "preparing for shipment" status at Apple then you should be able to cancel. You won't get charged until it ships, but there is no guarantee they can pull the order after it is in process. If not then you will have to return the pre-ordered phone after you get it and float the payment from the time they charge you until it is credited back.
I saw that report. Not sure how much I believe it. You’d think with the solid preorder / launch date Apple gave, they’d have production rolling as they were on stage. They could’ve said coming ‘Late Fall’ or something like they did with AirPods. Maybe because it’s an iPhone so it’s more important they announce it ASAP but idk. We shall see I guess.
Have you tried manufacturing 12 million of anything?
12 million processors, cameras, etc...
Apple doesn't make all the components so they are at the mercy of the limits of manufacturing of others and their supply chain.
Be careful with this... Your question is worded very specifically to make me think there's something important here. While the funds won't fully process until the item ships, your card (especially if it's a debit card tied to your bank account) could be authorized at the time of your order for the full amount, and the bank could hold those funds for the entire time from preorder to shipment (or cancellation if you get to that point). If you only have enough funds for 1 purchase, your preorder could prevent you from being able to buy in-store.
As others have said, though, you would only be able to cancel if the order doesn't hit Preparing for Shipment.
What I've discovered is that there are actually two transactions; one, when your credit card company approves the transaction amount; and the second, when the vendor "posts" the transaction. The posting won't happen until the shipment actually occurs. But your credit status may be in limbo for that amount between the first and second transaction.
I was one of the many who suffered the long wait for my 256GB 7+ and let me tell you, I was getting obsessed with checking on the order status to the point I thought I was starting to go insane.
The iPhone X is going to be absolute hell and I can’t wait.
The iPhone X is going to be absolute hell and I can’t wait.
There's no charge per say, but every penny is held hostage and unavailable to you until the moment it ships when the full amount is charged.
Yep... This was really fun with my Nintendo Switch preorder from Target. The auth would drop and then re-auth a day or 2 later. For weeks (almost 2 months?) it was a yo-yo on my card.
This is good news. I thought they would have a couple on launch day. I guess I'll wait and order my iPhone X at 3:00am on October 27th. Then I will likely receive it on launch day with no problem.
^^^^unlikely to happen. Now your point about ordering parts - there is evidence Apple did that year(s) ahead of time - how do we know - here it is MC's favorite analyst Kuo talking about this iPhone X in March of 2016.Cook hasn't been in charge of that stuff since becoming CEO in what, summer 2011?
Man, that's over 40 dog years ago!
Perhaps they need to stop announcing all their new phones at one time a year, and spread them out. Plus stop all their secrecy attempts. All it seems to do is make them wait until the last minute to order parts.
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/26/kuo-iphone-2017-oled-curved-glass/
According to this site, there’s a bottleneck in the difficult production of FaceID components. Cook is a master of acquiring components potentially available (RAM most famously) although that hasn’t been his role for over 5 years. Regardless, I’m not sure what one can do about acquiring components that are hard to mass produce in the first place.