Did no one inform Tim that Christmas is just around the corner and at around $200 this is a decent gift? For years Steve told everyone how great Tim was at lining up suppliers and that he was a logistics genius. It is unacceptable that you run short of a product this early in the holiday season, unless you have decided, as Steve did, that Apple TV is just a "hobby" and not worth their attention. Apple is a big company and can hire top talent. Get your act together, Apple, and take a page from Amazon and Google's book...they don't run out of their own product!
Did no one inform Tim that Christmas is just around the corner and at around $200 this is a decent gift? For years Steve told everyone how great Tim was at lining up suppliers and that he was a logistics genius. It is unacceptable that you run short of a product this early in the holiday season, unless you have decided, as Steve did, that Apple TV is just a "hobby" and not worth their attention. Apple is a big company and can hire top talent. Get your act together, Apple, and take a page from Amazon and Google's book...they don't run out of their own product!
And Tim clearly is. There's absolutely no way you can sell that many iPhones, for example, without having an excellent handle on the supply chain.
That said, none of that matters if demand still outstrips demand or if resources become scarce. The latter of which can include moving assembly lines that were making relatively low-profit Apple TVs to making relatively high-profit iPhones for the holiday season. This would be the smart move for any company that is trying to maximize revenue and profits… logistically speaking.
During the most recent Xmas quarter, Apple sold slightly fewer than 80 million iPhones, about 900,000 a day. Obligingly, a day has 86,400 seconds, so we round up to 90,000 to get a production yield of ten iPhones per second.
But producing a phone isn’t instantaneous, it isn’t like the click of the shutter in a high-speed camera. Let’s assume that it takes about 15 minutes (rounded up to 1,000 seconds) to assemble a single iPhone. How many parallel production pipes need to accumulate ten phones a second? 1,000 divided by 1/10 equals…10,000! Ten thousand parallel pipes in order to output ten phones per second.
We can juggle the numbers, but it’s still difficult to comprehend the scale and complexity of the iPhone production machine, to build a reliable mental representation.
I tried to order one LAST WEEK and it was pushed back to January. Only one was available about 150 miles from me.
I decided to pick up the 32GB because they’re hard to fill anyway and asked at the Apple Store why they were sold out and an employee told me everyone was buying them.
I hope Apple at least releases some vague numbers so developers can take it seriously. Something like “is outselling game consoles and developers have made 1 Billion this year!” Should be enough.
And Tim clearly is. There's absolutely no way you can sell that many iPhones, for example, without having an excellent handle on the supply chain.
this is clearly true. This truth, however, does not preclude the possibility of supply chain miscalculation for particular versions of particular products from time to time, especially lower volume products. if there are supply issues for the 64GB version, the higher margin version of the Apple TV 4K, the timing prior to Christmas is most unfortunate.
And Tim clearly is. There's absolutely no way you can sell that many iPhones, for example, without having an excellent handle on the supply chain.
this is clearly true. This truth, however, does not preclude the possibility of supply chain miscalculation for particular versions of particular products from time to time, especially lower volume products. if there are supply issues for the 64GB version, the higher margin version of the Apple TV 4K, the timing prior to Christmas is most unfortunate.
Not only are supply chain miscalculations possible, it's improbable that Apple doesn't correct errors every single day.
Remember how much of this is based on future planning of the unknown which has to be balanced against all resources and estimates of consumer interests and costs. Resources alone include, in part, materials right down to their primary elements that are used by 3rd-party vendors to build components as well as their 3rd-party vendors for other components and supplies to make the components that are finally used by Foxconn for final assembly, as well as transportation, staff, and facilities. Gov't issues and the weather also are in play at any given moment. There are simply too many moving parts for there NOT to be constant recalculations.
Where does AppleTV get assembled? At Foxconn? Is it possible that employees have been pulled from the AppleTV production line to assemble iPhone X units? If that's the case, it makes good sense to me.
They have been out of stock in the Netherlands and other countries throughout Europe for quite a while now. I ordered one a few weeks ago at Apple store and it was due to ship in 4-5 weeks. But the 4-5 weeks estimate remained. Luckily I found one lying around on the wrong shelf in an electronics shop at the airport and cancelled my order at Apple. 😄
Did no one inform Tim that Christmas is just around the corner and at around $200 this is a decent gift? For years Steve told everyone how great Tim was at lining up suppliers and that he was a logistics genius. It is unacceptable that you run short of a product this early in the holiday season, unless you have decided, as Steve did, that Apple TV is just a "hobby" and not worth their attention. Apple is a big company and can hire top talent. Get your act together, Apple, and take a page from Amazon and Google's book...they don't run out of their own product!
Get a grip and come down from that haughty mountain top you live on. Your private parts are showing you know.
They have been out of stock in the Netherlands and other countries throughout Europe for quite a while now. I ordered one a few weeks ago at Apple store and it was due to ship in 4-5 weeks. But the 4-5 weeks estimate remained. Luckily I found one lying around on the wrong shelf in an electronics shop at the airport and cancelled my order at Apple. 😄
Which is looking increasingly like a Global Shortage. Either Memory or NAND, or both. iPad had to rise price due to Memory and NAND prices getting higher.
Which is why Apple is trying to get the Toshiba Deal done asap.
Got my 64GB ATV4 but my 4K TV is still waiting for delivery! I think Apple will be opening up the AT ecosystem and allow actual storage of other stuff other the apps in AT4 like movies, tv shows, photos and music. Otherwise, why have 64GB option?
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That said, none of that matters if demand still outstrips demand or if resources become scarce. The latter of which can include moving assembly lines that were making relatively low-profit Apple TVs to making relatively high-profit iPhones for the holiday season. This would be the smart move for any company that is trying to maximize revenue and profits… logistically speaking.
I decided to pick up the 32GB because they’re hard to fill anyway and asked at the Apple Store why they were sold out and an employee told me everyone was buying them.
I hope Apple at least releases some vague numbers so developers can take it seriously. Something like “is outselling game consoles and developers have made 1 Billion this year!” Should be enough.
this is clearly true. This truth, however, does not preclude the possibility of supply chain miscalculation for particular versions of particular products from time to time, especially lower volume products.
if there are supply issues for the 64GB version, the higher margin version of the Apple TV 4K, the timing prior to Christmas is most unfortunate.
Remember how much of this is based on future planning of the unknown which has to be balanced against all resources and estimates of consumer interests and costs. Resources alone include, in part, materials right down to their primary elements that are used by 3rd-party vendors to build components as well as their 3rd-party vendors for other components and supplies to make the components that are finally used by Foxconn for final assembly, as well as transportation, staff, and facilities. Gov't issues and the weather also are in play at any given moment. There are simply too many moving parts for there NOT to be constant recalculations.
I ordered one a few weeks ago at Apple store and it was due to ship in 4-5 weeks. But the 4-5 weeks estimate remained.
Luckily I found one lying around on the wrong shelf in an electronics shop at the airport and cancelled my order at Apple. 😄
Which is why Apple is trying to get the Toshiba Deal done asap.