Japanese disaster could leave Apple with shortage of five key iPad 2 components - Page 2

Yeah, core meltdowns, reactor breaches, and MOX fuel fires are so overhyped. I bet those guys with the fire hoses struggling to prevent a phreatic explosion in a dark, highly radioactive nuclear plant think it's really over hyped too.

The problems might be directly region specific but the will impact all of Japan. The ports that are closed will mean the undamaged ports will have to absorb the overflow. Same with roads. Same with airports. Same with rail. The damage to the electrical supply may also have have been regional but again the impact is national. The quakes and aftershocks are being felt across the country so there effects will be across the country in terms of equipment that is sensitive to them. And all of that is on top of the human side, where workers are absent to assist with S&R, caring for others or generally distressed.

I looked them all up on a Google Map and every one has their manufacturing in the southern part of Japan far away from the affected area. Some with offices in Tokyo high rise buildings. The one exception is Toshiba which has numerous facilities with only one being in the north but on the western coast, far away from the disaster area.

The article did a lot of speculation about logistics and raw material, but I have close business contacts in Japan, who are in high tech industries and they have said that in the south there are no problems impacting their manufacturing.

The immediate and surrounding area around the nuke plant is of course dangerous. And I certainly wouldn't want to be one of those workers who are there now.

Really? Where in Japan do workers get $5 per day working on an assembly line? Your concept of global economics is seriously flawed.


They're ignoring a number of issues:
1. Apple has some stock available at all times.
2. Apple prepaid for many key components and will therefore get first dibs
3. If things like NAND and resin are in short supply while Apple has first dibs, that is going to hurt the competitors more than it hurts Apple.


The iPad is aluminum. Magnets won't stick. That means that by simple logic, the iPad itself must contain either magnets or magnetic metals. A trivial amount of research would tell you that the case itself has a lot of magnets (in fact, I think it was posted here just a couple of days ago).


Like everything else the media does.

He already explained he was referring to the west coast USA fears being hyped not the situation in Japan.

Sometimes snotty, sarcastic, knee jerk responses come back to bite the perpetrator in the ass

Thanks I was trying to discover this info, it's not easy. So time to buy more AAPL while everyone assumes iPad 2 is doomed

What on earth would make you assume that people don't 'care about Japan?'

Yes, as I was posting. Just as he already responded to my post (as you were posting.)
In any case the nuclear situation in Japan could turn far more serious in an instant, given an unfortunate change of events and wind direction.

lol. can anyone here say "Haiti"

Many of those investors are such cowardly types.

I wish that Apple would come out with at least one flop in the near future and that stock prices would take a dive. That would be a good time for me to get some Apple stock.

Discussions about sales or investment immediately draw attacks of being cold and uncaring. If one makes a disclaimer saying the comments are not without heart felt sympathy you are told there is no need to apologize and business must go on. It is a difficult road to navigate for sure. My thoughts are it is in Japan's best interest that business continues as I am sure most of us on this blog feel. It doesn't doesn't preclude caring. People should stop being so quick to be snippy when we discuss these issues relating to the economic dangers and opportunities.

Unfortunately no matter what they do, someone will scream foul. they say no cash (which they can legally do) they get last years stuff again with old ladies on welfare calling consumer protection lawyers and news stations. They say 'you must prove you are a us citizen' and they will get the same warnings about discrimination because the folks that aren't are generally asian (at least in NYC, SF etc). IF they record id numbers, the privacy nuts will sue. And so on.

Even 'one per person' won't really stop the scalpers cause they will just hire more folks. It's the same money to them.

The only thing the stores can do and not really get in trouble is monitor the line and if they see someone handing out cash etc they can invoke that that makes all those people the same customer and refuse them service just like they do with anyone else that buys two and tries to hand his credit card to his brother back in line. But that takes staff, security back up etc and still might not work

Honestly, any time in the last 2 years has been a pretty good time to buy AAPL.
http://www.google.com//finance?chdnp...AQ:AAPL&ntsp=0

[perhaps this illustrates it even better]
http://www.google.com//finance?chdnp...AQ:AAPL&ntsp=0

2 days ago was an excellent opportunity (that I missed for options,) but now is still very good for stock.

ranReloaded is from Tokyo so understandably may be a little emotionally sensitive to various topics is thread. I'd give him a pass on this.

Apple doesn't need a flop for that to happen. Be it 'death grips' or 'deliberate inventory withholding' or 'parts shortages' stories there are always ample FUD attacks by the opposition and Apple haters to ensure ups and downs whilst ever trending upward. I am in for the long haul mostly but lately have been playing with a few hundred shares of AAPL and selling on the ups and buying on the downs ahead of the changes (mostly guesses on my part based on info i read here at AI to be honest) and so far on those stocks I keep making five or six thousand dollars a go. I'd never dare do this with our major holdings though, those we have had for many years. This short term stuff scares me to death to be honest!

Well, for one it looks like the crisis in Japan gets mentioned just because it is causing trouble to the supply of the so-awaited iPad2. Nothing to do with the readers/posters!

In any case, I am aware that this is just an Apple gizmo-related website, and most people of the world are leading their lives as usual these days. No serious complaint intended!

Looking at that chart, I'd say that you were right. I don't have any experience in the stock market and I unfortunately don't have as much funds as I would like to be able to buy up a significant amount of Apple shares that would make any difference I think. But in the future, I definitely plan on getting some Apple shares. I was a moron for not doing it 10 years ago, as I have always loved Apple and have always had a high confidence in them.

Although most Americans are not travelers and don't really think internationally, you can be sure that people here are quite concerned and sympathetic. It is even more upsetting to those of us who have traveled to Japan or who have friends there.

That's interesting info. Hopefully I'll be playing that game soon too.

[BTW, don't take this as investing advice.]
Doubling an investment is always good, even if you can't invest as much as you would like. People get freaked out by the stock price for no rational reason. Performance not price is the key.
10 shares of AAPL at 330 is the same as 100 shares of MSFT at 33 (except that it tends to go up!)

There's only a few things Apple can do and some they wouldn't want to do because then the blogosphere would go nuts. They should limit purchases to one per customer. They could (possibly) only permit purchases with a credit card (not sure if this would be legal) and only permit one purchase every 30 days per credit card account, although this would have limited effect because most people have multiple credit cards.

They could also (although here's where they might get tons of criticism) not permit account/warranty registrations from outside the U.S. for serial numbers purchased in the U.S. But this could get tricky and interfere with legit sales from tourists, etc.

Also, they could only provide warranty support to the original purchaser. Many hardware companies do this.

Another tact would be is that you go online to get a ticket that has a date/time that you can return to pick up the iPad (perhaps with a credit card deposit). That way, the resellers couldn't line up at 4am or whatever, although there would probably be a market in those tickets and someone would probably write a robot to get those tickets.

The problem with all this would be that Apple would probably get criticism from people claiming that with all these restrictions, Apple is in effect "licensing" the hardware rather than selling it. And I think that's why Apple isn't doing much to stop it. Before the earthquake, Apple probably thought that supply would soon catch up to demand. But if Apple really is relying upon parts from Japan that they haven't yet received, the iPad2 will be in short supply for a long time to come.

But in the end, so what? No one is going to die by not having an iPad 2.

I've done that too. But I have to say, one mistake could be quite painful (like say holding on too long at the start of the recent depression and re-entering too late.)
Buy and hold will do pretty darn well for you on this stock.

I agree I have lost weight playing this game! I think I will stop while I am ahead and relax on the long term. I am not a gambler by nature and on any visit to Las Vegas I watch the wife risk a few $s at Black Jack while I people watch.

I wouldn't say doomed but it does seem that there will be disruptions in supply over the next month.

Car manufacturers, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, Taiwan Semiconductor and a few others are talking about supply problems... my guess is that Apple won't be immune from this problem.

Do it with only a few shares though my advice, for what it's worth, is buy and hold for the most part where Apple is concerned.

Agreed but I would assume the iPad clones are in a similar position, any news on that subject?

I can certainly see why speculation at this time is distasteful to anyone actually in japan.

Thanks for the advice (and to DESuserIGN also). I am sort of a gambler though. I've even managed to make a small profit playing poker online, which is kind of hard to do on a consistent basis. That's getting kind of risky though as the Feds are trying to crackdown on that bigtime.

But yeah, if somebody is in it for the long haul, Apple certainly seems like a great investment. Just sit back and watch it grow.

Absolutely. We still don't know the whole truth I suspect.

It does not matter what kind of GPS or Triangulation you are using. They still can not tell you which way you are facing. The only way to do that is with magnets using our magnetic north or with a calibrated gyroscope (even thats a bit iffy)

The Xoom is better positioned for the supply constraints than Apple's iPad2... Motorola has the 12 units in the warehouse that will be needed until things get back to normal...

Whatever happened to using the sun and stars for directions instead of relying on a technological device?

Shortage of parts for sextants.

This will no doubt be taken the wrong way ... but psychologically speaking I suspect the peoples in developed nations have developed a sort of mental defense where third world country disasters are concerned. We care and we help but in my life time they have been unending and a sort of 'what's next' feeling occurs. Many disasters are even self inflicted by despotic leaders although a lot are natural disasters but worsened by poor building and lousy infrastructure. There is something jarring however, when we witness a disaster in a first world country such as New Zealand or Japan, not because we care more rather because it makes us realize we too are not immune from a disaster and it shocks us far more. Does this make sense?

You might be right about that, but one big difference it would have is that the actual people who would be standing on line would see their wage cut by 50% as they would only be able to deliver one device to the ringleader per day and perhaps less people would be willing to physically live at the Apple stores for that low amount of money.

There are gyroscopic compasses and GPS dual antennae devices that can tell you exactly where you are facing (I only know as I just read up on this ... no doubt all way too large but I have to think the magnetic compass will be replaced by higher tech in consumer devices soon.

But ... always keep a traditional compass incase of power failure

Ever been to the UK? Sun, stars?? What are you thinking

I find many third world countries to be so utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt that even when massive aid is given, vast amounts are stolen and wasted and in the end, it doesn't really help those who are in need of it. Primitive societies will have to dig themselves out of their own holes. That's the way I see it at least.

However, that isn't the fault of the population. It is a judgement on their so called leaders. It is also just as much the fault of western governments who do business with despots as it is in their interest.

btw partial quoting can be misleading. Just saying