Apple China's official website on March 20 opened purchase restrictions, each iPhone model on sale is limited to 2 per person. The last Apple purchase restriction dates back to 2007. Judging from the current trend of the spread of the epidemic globally, Apple is really "nothing" this time.
Short supply
On March 8, a number of electronics retailers in New York, United States, said that iPhone 11 inventory was about to sell out. Even mobile operators have said that the supply of iPhone 11 series has begun to decline. Worst of all, retailers don't even know when they will get a new item.
In addition, there are other mobile phone sales channels that have stated that the iPhone's delivery time has been extended to several weeks, and there is no accurate estimate of the arrival time. Some retailers even suspect that operators have deliberately controlled supply chain shipments for prevention, and operators appear to be sacrificing offline retail stores in favor of online interests.
It must be known that on March 8th, Italy officially began to close the city. Before that, apart from China, the only people affected by the epidemic were South Korea, Italy and Iran. As of March, a total of 25,373 confirmed cases were recorded in 98 countries and regions, except China. At that time, the awareness of prevention and control in North America and Europe was only in the handwashing stage, and a large number of people did not even worry about the epidemic.
In less than two weeks, the number of confirmed cases abroad surged by more than 100,000, U.S. stocks were fused four times, and major global events were changed to online or directly canceled. Major companies have arranged employees to work from home and restrict business travel.
This makes the already eager inventory of Apple even worse. This round of purchase restriction measures can be seen as Apple's helpless action to reduce the level of inventory consumption. Of course, the reason behind the shortage is that its supply chain is suffering from an epidemic.
Supply chain dilemmas
If you know that Apple's supply chain is spread all over the world, which link is out of order, the grasshopper hanging on a line will not be better.
The new crown virus gave China a mallet before teaching the world to be human. Affected by the epidemic, China's Spring Festival holiday was forced to be extended, followed by the start of business. In the meantime, not only Apple's retail stores closed down, but even Foxconn, Apple's most important foundry, also postponed the resumption of work. No production, what about shipments? Apple warned at the time: "It takes time to resume normal production, and the recovery process is slower than we expected."
The Chinese market accounts for nearly 15% of Apple's sales, but more importantly, China is the production base of the iPhone, and the abnormal production of factories will affect global supply. Even now, Foxconn is not operating at full capacity, and not all Apple retail stores in mainland China have opened.
The production capacity cannot be raised. The old one was almost ravaged. The shortage of stocks came just like this locust plague.
However, the heavy supply chain in China is only part of the story.
As of today, the peak of China's domestic epidemic has stabilized, and major companies have resumed work one after another. As China's supply chain began to recover, foreign supply chains began to suffer.
When the new crown virus first embarked on the journey to the world, the four countries that suffered most were South Korea, Iran, Italy, and Japan. Among them, South Korean LG, Samsung and other Apple supplier companies burst out confirmed cases. LG Innotek, a division of LGD, is a major supplier of Apple's high-end camera modules. For a long time, LG Innotek has won most orders for high-end camera modules in the iPhone series. In addition, Apple also sources chips from ST's Italian factory.
The plight of the global supply chain makes it difficult for Apple to solve the supply problem in the short term, not to mention that many countries around the world have also implemented strict controls on logistics transportation in China and South Korea. For difficulties.
New difficulties in online sales
On March 14, Apple's official website released an open letter from Cook, which stated that due to the new crown epidemic, Apple will close retail stores in all regions except Greater China until March 27. The relevant services and support will be Transfer online. It stands to reason that without the pressure of offline channels, Apple should have felt better, but a problem with online sales has become prominent-express delivery.
The new crown epidemic has severely affected all walks of life. From South Korea to the United States, people from physical stores to e-commerce, major e-commerce platforms have burst orders, and delivery has been delayed. Among them, Amazon, Wal-Mart and other companies' delivery services have been affected to varying degrees.
The surge in online orders also means that courier companies will be overloaded. How to protect the health of courier employees is the most important issue in the epidemic. In addition, the epidemic is still climbing globally and the road ahead is unknown. It is difficult to guarantee that other countries or regions will follow China's measures to close the city. Once the city is closed, what about express delivery?
On the other hand, convenient online sales have also stimulated the consumption of Apple's inventory from the side. After all, consumers only need to click to place an order immediately, which saves time and effort than offline stores. Apple starts the line after closing the physical store. The cap purchase can only be said to be a helpless move to cope with the shortage of the supply chain.
Apple has entered this quagmire since the outbreak of China's epidemic, and the opening of purchase restrictions is also Apple's move to not get deeper and deeper. According to the latest news, in addition to China, Apple has successively opened the line cap purchase model in multi-country markets such as the United States.
It can be said that Apple is still struggling in the short term, but the epidemic will eventually slow down. As the global supply chain recovers, market demand gradually picks up, and there may be an opportunity for Apple to wash away the mud on its body.
