At the height of the Asian Covid-19 pandemic, many of Apple's suppliers and contract manufacturers were shut down. However, now according to Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster, Apple supply chain has returned to January 2020 production levels.
Munster's analysis is based on the shrinking lead times for iPhone and AirPods. He said that as of mid-June, Apple's supply chain and production appeared to have returned to levels similar to those seen in early January 2020. A consistent level.
"We see this as proof that Apple's supply chain is back to full strength.”
If that's the case, the 5G 2020 release of iPhone 12 models may not be delayed. Or even the delay will be very slight.
A slight delay isn't unheard of; in fact, it's happened twice in the past three years.
In 2017, the iPhone X was only available on November 3, and in 2018 The iPhone XR wasn't available until October 26.
Last year, the iPhone 11 series models were all available starting on September 20.
Munster notes that the 64GB iPhone 11 and 64GB iPhone 11 The delivery time for the Pro has been reduced from 13.6 days on March 13 and as recently as May 14. 9.7 days dropped dramatically to 1.6 days.
AirPods' lead times peaked at 15.4 days on Valentine's Day, February 14. Now, that greater than two-week delay has fallen to 1.7 days.
Munster noted that tracking lead times is useful. We've tracked online lead times for Apple products for the past decade and are sensitive to the insights that can be drawn from the data," he said. It will be affected by unknown supply and demand dynamics. Despite the method's shortcomings, it has historically been a useful tool."
He noted that the longer lead times of certain iPhone models after their latest launch are "an accurate measure of higher demand ", and if the shipping time is fast, the new machine is not very popular.
Munster also cited a specific recent example. In the first quarter of Apple's 2020 fiscal year, the AirPods Pro had a lead time greater than four weeks. During the quarter, Apple's wearables division saw record revenue, with AirPods growing 75 percent year-over-year.
