Apple Inc, the US mobile phone giant, releases a new line of products including the flagship iPhone fall of every year. Production takes place in China where Apple has majority of their factories but due to the Coronavirus frenzy, Apple Inc’s engineers have difficulty in getting to Asia to finalize production.
Several reports of lockdowns and foreigners quarantined amid China’s attempt to control the outbreak may result in this delay with Apple using Foxconn in Taiwan for the introduction of new models due to the company’s advanced capabilities.
These updates corroborate with Apple’s warning to investors of the likelihood of missing revenue targets in the first quarter of 2020 due to Chinese factories not restarting production as quickly as expected. Foxconn has also made a similar statement that the outbreak would impact their revenue adversely.
The Timeline of production for the Apple iPhone leaves no room for delays
Apple’s work on their iPhone has different phases in their production cycle which start when the Lunar New Year holiday ends in China late January. This is the phase when prototypes head to the assembly line for mass production.
The process is important so Apple’s engineers can test the prototype and Foxconn’s workers start to assemble the preliminary set of devices.
This stage is detrimental to the entire production cycle as any delay here pushes all future phases further back. While manufacturing has been optimized due to the standardization of parts, most of the iPhone’s parts are customized for the specific iPhone.
The next phase requires the engineers to do trial runs alongside Foxconn’s workforce and then make final adjustments to the product by May. This timeline is scheduled to make sure that output meets demand by the fall launch date.
Everything needs to be perfect to make the iPhone
“It’s very complicated. There are so many variables in the environment, including small factors such as air pollution,” according to an expert.
“You can fly those engineers somewhere else but there’s knowledge about how you make a product in that environment. It’s not that it can’t be taught but it’s a hard thing to move,” said Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, a former apple engineer in an interview on the 'Cult of The Mac' podcast.
The race against time for Apple’s products has begun and while there is still time to make up for the delays, it all rests on how quickly China can control the situation.
Delay won't affect rumoured iPhone 9 launch on March 31st
The aforementioned delay will not affect the launch of the second variant of the iPhone SE which is rumoured to launch end of March because of the pre-existing technology used to make the phone. The name of the first iPhone of 2020 has not been confirmed and it is predicted that the second rendition of iPhone SE will be called iPhone 9.
Apple skipped out on iPhone 9 previously with iPhone X commemorating the 10th anniversary of the launch of the iPhone.