As the pandemic continues to strain supply chains the world over, the availability of Macs, iPads and other Apple devices is dwindling in retail stores.
Apple products that are currently delayed for new orders
Apple’s ability to churn out devices and get them out the door is under pressure due to the worsening Covid-19 situation—the Chinese government has imposed another series of lockdown. Doing so has severely affected the country’s contract manufacturers. As a result, many popular Mac and iPad models are listed with a wait time of several weeks, with some orders unavailable until as far back as August.
What about Apple’s online stores?
Those products are not only hard to find in Apple’s own brick-and-mortar stores but also in the company’s online store as well. Read:How to chat live with Apple Support on the web or your device
And Amazon?
Other retailers don’t seem to be affected. Amazon has these products in stock, but that’s because Amazon operates the world’s biggest warehouses. Places such as Best Buy, Adorama and B&H Photo also had the aforementioned products in stock.
So why won’t Apple simply produce more stuff?
With Apple, there’s no warehouse—just limited stock in each store. That’s because Apple since Steve Jobs’s return has been churning out products on demand. Contrast Apple’s approach with Amazon, which typically puts out a large order for a bunch of Apple products to keep in stock and ship to customers as soon as possible.
When will shipping times improve?
That’s the million-dollar question. Apple in particular has felt the negative effects of the health crisis (and other world problems) for some time now. And just when we thought we were finally winning in this battle, Covid cases are on the rise in areas of the US. At the Apple Park headquarters, for example, workers show up in-person just two days of the week. Apple has delayed its return-to-office plans several times already, and it recently mandated masking within stores for its own employees.
How Covid is disrupting Apple all over again
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Covid is disrupting Apple again. Therefore, shipping times probably won’t improve before the pandemic eases. Until then, Apple will find it continually challenging to ship orders on time. Perhaps that’s why Apple has notified several suppliers and contract manufacturers that it would like to expand manufacturing outside of China. According to theWall Street Journal, Apple would like to increase manufacturing in India and Vietnam which could be one way to avoid the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns in China which have delayed manufacturing.
