As someone who who works for UPS, Apple ships on planes (90% of the time its FedEx). You can see this when you track your package out of China. Most of the time its next stop is Alaska then the lower 48. FedEx feeds out of Memphis and UPS is through Louisville. Never heard of Apple using ships. How would it make it Next Day Air?
What you say makes sense, considering tracking the last 3 iPhones, 4 iPads and my Apple Watch I recently purchased, as well as understanding that Pacific Ocean shipping from China to the USA is in the range of a month.
I ordered a Macbook Pro many years ago and carefully watched the tracking info online. It certainly appeared that it was shipped by air freight. Three days from China to the US certainly isn't done by sea container. Customers/Apple must pay a lot in air freight charges. It is a lot more expensive but I imagine Apple believes that cost is recouped in some supply chain efficiency and customer satisfaction and sales.
volcan said: The very first iPhone was delivered by ship. There was a post at the time that said some shipping management company collected data through their tracking service which exposed the location of the Apple shipping containers soon to arrive in a NY port. Since then we've seen posts of DHL cargo planes in China loading up ahead of launch day. It is entirely possible they are using a combination of shipping methods. Planes for the first wave and ships for the holiday shopping season, but that does sort of conflict with the speculation that Apple only keeps a week worth of iPhone inventory.
As someone who who works for UPS, Apple ships on planes (90% of the time its FedEx). You can see this when you track your package out of China. Most of the time its next stop is Alaska then the lower 48. FedEx feeds out of Memphis and UPS is through Louisville. Never heard of Apple using ships. How would it make it Next Day Air?
I too was under the impression that Apple ships all their products via air. This is the first article I've read where container ships have been mentioned. Is there anyone that can verify this? I find it rather strong in the BS arena.
More like AI (as usual) posts first without verifying.
Apple has used overseas freight for a long time, in conjunction with air shipping. Way, way more economical per unit.
Nothing wrong with it. Keeps profits up.
Good comments. Lot of what was said makes sense.
I go with the combination. Whatever suites the job…
However, at this time of year, a new product(s) introduction(s), the fact that it takes nearly a month for sea freight takes to load/cross/unload the Pacific, my personal experiences and the rational as outlined in Does Apple Ship iPhones by Air or Sea?, I lean towards the latter.
I can imagine that Apple would move iPhones by ship but NOT at launch time when demand far outstrips supply. Tim Cook just isn't about to allow that to happen.
It may well be that standard stock of iPhones in January and later comes by ship. But not now. That is just not credible.
A container ship can carry nearly 1000 times as much freight (by volume) as a large cargo plane (MD-11...which is the type UPS uses to carry our orders from Korea to their main hub in KY). That's why air is so much more expensive. It's significantly faster, but the cost is high. You use air when you need to get product to a customer fast and direct (i.e. an online launch day order). You use ships to move the bulk of the product - tens of millions of phones - to stock the retail outlets.
The article is exactly what I suspected all along when I read about the ships sitting out at sea weeks ago. The very first shipments DO COME BY SEA! They always have and will continue too. The shear volume of initial orders doesn't justify the use of planes. Your talking 35 million phones usually during launch and they start making phones months in advance. How do you think so many spy photos are released. And seeing how the ones who received their phones already had to update the iOS version that was included it's obvious they are over a month old. So sit back and relax your phone will be on the way sooner then later. Just hope that extra time in the sun and heat didn't damage them!!
This website has been live since before the 16th. Dozens of UPS planes almost daily are coming in from China to Alaska to Kentucky. Launch day iPhones are NOT shipped by boat.
Wether Apple uses sea freight after the holidays is anyone's guess, but I'd say it's never even a consideration until all supply and demand levels off after launch.
Are you insane? There's no way Apple has shipped a billion phones by air, not to mention many other products.
Phones and other products ORDERED by customers are aggregated and shipped by air, and customers are given arrival dates. As others mentioned, store stock doesn't need to be shipped by air. For big events, some product is probably air freighted.
Air freight is far, far more expensive than sea not to mention the lesser capacity, and I'm sure Cook has had a lot of experience balancing the economies of shipping.
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In addition, this article, Does Apple Ship iPhones by Air or Sea? certainly confirms this.
I go with the combination. Whatever suites the job…
However, at this time of year, a new product(s) introduction(s), the fact that it takes nearly a month for sea freight takes to load/cross/unload the Pacific, my personal experiences and the rational as outlined in Does Apple Ship iPhones by Air or Sea?, I lean towards the latter.
But then, what makes sense these days.
http://flightaware.com/live/iphone
Wether Apple uses sea freight after the holidays is anyone's guess, but I'd say it's never even a consideration until all supply and demand levels off after launch.
Phones and other products ORDERED by customers are aggregated and shipped by air, and customers are given arrival dates. As others mentioned, store stock doesn't need to be shipped by air. For big events, some product is probably air freighted.
Air freight is far, far more expensive than sea not to mention the lesser capacity, and I'm sure Cook has had a lot of experience balancing the economies of shipping.