Someone asked me earlier about distribution to the UK - unfortunately I don't know much about the westbound routes out of China.
For those wondering in the U.S. and Canada, the way it works is a bit different than the usual "5pm cutoff" domestic retail UPS. Merch comes out of the factory packed in pallets (individual models are manufactured by at least the pallet - that's why a whole bunch of, say, white sports get notified at the same time) that are loaded onto chartered freight planes - sometimes UPS or FDX, but usually something like China Cargo, Polar, or KAL because UPS/FDX are already filled with their regular load).
Anchorage is the point of importation and the FOB point where Apple "takes charge" of the merchandise. The pallets get broken up here into smaller units and "entered" directly into the courier mainlines. Once this happens, they are officially "in" the U.S. and the "normal" domestic ship stream - it is this event that typically triggers the "preparing for shipment" notifications at around 5pm ET.
Occasionally, pallets enter the UPS system directly from China and you get tracking all the way from there along with early notification. But for really big launches like this, it's inefficient compared to chartering planes.
My guess is that flights touching down by early afternoon AKDT stand a chance of making it for a Friday delivery especially on the west coast, with a good connection. Anything later will be next week.
I do a fair amount of supply chain management analysis, so I hope this was interesting.
For those wondering in the U.S. and Canada, the way it works is a bit different than the usual "5pm cutoff" domestic retail UPS. Merch comes out of the factory packed in pallets (individual models are manufactured by at least the pallet - that's why a whole bunch of, say, white sports get notified at the same time) that are loaded onto chartered freight planes - sometimes UPS or FDX, but usually something like China Cargo, Polar, or KAL because UPS/FDX are already filled with their regular load).
Anchorage is the point of importation and the FOB point where Apple "takes charge" of the merchandise. The pallets get broken up here into smaller units and "entered" directly into the courier mainlines. Once this happens, they are officially "in" the U.S. and the "normal" domestic ship stream - it is this event that typically triggers the "preparing for shipment" notifications at around 5pm ET.
Occasionally, pallets enter the UPS system directly from China and you get tracking all the way from there along with early notification. But for really big launches like this, it's inefficient compared to chartering planes.
My guess is that flights touching down by early afternoon AKDT stand a chance of making it for a Friday delivery especially on the west coast, with a good connection. Anything later will be next week.
I do a fair amount of supply chain management analysis, so I hope this was interesting.
