Supply chain claims Apple's iPhone X part bottleneck woes will be resolved before Christma...
A new supply chain report suggests that the chokepoints on iPhone X manufacturing are loosening, and shipments from assemblers may meet demand before the holiday season concludes.
Contradicting earlier supply chain reports, DigiTimes claims that chip vendors "were not aware" of any production delays or shipment cutbacks. The same reports claim that chip deliveries for the iPhone X have been on schedule, with the supply chain needs for components sated before the holiday season.
Tuesday's report claims that shipments of the iPhone X will "grow substantially" after October -- which it would have to, to have any availability in November, if previous reports are accurate.
However, the report also claims that the iPhone X won't reach equilibrium of supply and demand until the first quarter of 2018. Should the new predicted schedule hold, that would mean that there is sufficient supply of the device at about the same time as the iPhone 7 Plus did.
Many of the earlier reports of constrained component supply, including one from Monday, came from DigiTimes itself, so it is not clear where the new, or refined, information is coming from. DigiTimes has an unreliable track record in predicting Apple's future product plans, but does occasionally provide accurate information from Apple's supply chain.
Apple's iPhone X debuted on Sept. 12 and has a 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED display, the A11 Bionic processor, a 3D-sensing TrueDepth camera at the core of the Face ID technology. The device ships Nov. 3, and starts at $999 without any promotions.
Contradicting earlier supply chain reports, DigiTimes claims that chip vendors "were not aware" of any production delays or shipment cutbacks. The same reports claim that chip deliveries for the iPhone X have been on schedule, with the supply chain needs for components sated before the holiday season.
Tuesday's report claims that shipments of the iPhone X will "grow substantially" after October -- which it would have to, to have any availability in November, if previous reports are accurate.
However, the report also claims that the iPhone X won't reach equilibrium of supply and demand until the first quarter of 2018. Should the new predicted schedule hold, that would mean that there is sufficient supply of the device at about the same time as the iPhone 7 Plus did.
Many of the earlier reports of constrained component supply, including one from Monday, came from DigiTimes itself, so it is not clear where the new, or refined, information is coming from. DigiTimes has an unreliable track record in predicting Apple's future product plans, but does occasionally provide accurate information from Apple's supply chain.
Apple's iPhone X debuted on Sept. 12 and has a 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED display, the A11 Bionic processor, a 3D-sensing TrueDepth camera at the core of the Face ID technology. The device ships Nov. 3, and starts at $999 without any promotions.
Comments
We closed out our short position and are now long.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/97924440/potato-chip-supplies-not-affected-by-potato-shortage
But none of this matters really. Either Apple will have 'em or they won't.
We go through this every year, including the launch of the poorly received iPhone 6S. Early adopter demand always exceeds initial supply. Except for the 6S year, equilibrium isn't achieved until very late in the December quarter, sometimes not until the March quarter.
Frankly, (I believe all these supply constraint rumors were BS of the highest order) I'm hoping delivery is 2 - 3 weeks on Black Friday.
The real limiting factor may be in Visa/MasterCard's ability to process that many simultaneous charge requests. I have no idea what their break point is.
Made enough to cover demand? Demand must be soft: DOOMED.