Shipping Estimates on iMacs with 2 TB Hard Drives Improve to 2-4 Weeks

[MacRumors]

As noted by AppleInsider, shipping estimates for build-to-order iMac models equipped with 2 TB hard drives have improved to 2-4 weeks, after previously being as long as 5-7 weeks earlier this month. It appears that hard drive shortages caused by massive flooding in Thailand over the past several months may be improving.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about the potential impact of the Thailand flooding on Apple's business during the company's October earnings conference call. Cook noted that there would undoubtedly be an industry-wide shortage of hard disk drives that would primarily affect Apple in its Mac business, but that there had yet to be a full assessment of the impact or an estimated timeline for recovery. He also declined to offer any specific information on the expected impact to Apple, noting only that any such impact was figured into the company's blockbuster revenue guidance of $37 billion for the holiday quarter.

Article Link: Shipping Estimates on iMacs with 2 TB Hard Drives Improve to 2-4 Weeks

 

[Memo86]

i'd rather wait until the new iMac..

 

[Bear]

i'd rather wait until the new iMac..

Based on the info in the Buyer's Guide, in 2 months we'd be at the average number of days since last update. So it could be wise to wait. And the Ivy Bridge processors could be as early as March according to the last info I saw.

However, do you need a system? If so don't wait as you never know when an update will actually happen.

 

[Constable Odo]

How about Apple possible having enough influence to persuade drive manufacturers to supply Apple before other companies. Cash up front and guaranteed orders in the future.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I would like buying iMac with SDD drive or so what will works faster.

 

[talmy]

How about Apple possible having enough influence to persuade drive manufacturers to supply Apple before other companies. Cash up front and guaranteed orders in the future.

I'm sure they already do that, but you can't take delivery of drives that don't exist, and I bet the contracts have exclusion clauses for natural disasters.

 

[the8thark]

Apple Australia never went to 5-7 weeks. It was 2-4 days for a very long time and a few days ago it went to 2-4 weeks.

 

[dizmonk]

I can't wait until sometime in the spring/early summer to get the new version... I need a desktop now... so I ordered and will wait hopefully only a few more weeks.

 

[DESNOS]

I'm sure they already do that, but you can't take delivery of drives that don't exist, and I bet the contracts have exclusion clauses for natural disasters.

Would a clause like that even be necessary? You'd think it couldn't really be any other way.

 

[layte]

Plenty of drives are in the channel. I guess Apple are trying to put people off so the increased cost does not eat into their margins.

 

[talmy]

Would a clause like that even be necessary? You'd think it couldn't really be any other way.

Contracts and common sense aren't the same thing.

 

[gnasher729]

Would a clause like that even be necessary? You'd think it couldn't really be any other way.

Very necessary. Let's say Apple has a contract to buy one million hard drives. The maker might not be able to deliver because they overestimated their ability to build, or because someone else offered them one dollar more per hard drive and they sold them to someone else. You put penalty clauses into your contracts to avoid that kind of thing. But once that penalty clause is in the contract, it applies to all situations except those that are excluded _in the contract_.