Misreading Apple’s supply chain and iPhone XR demand

“Apple’s supply chain scale is truly unprecedented,” Ben Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “Through all these years, Apple has learned how to build one of the most fluid supply chains in the history of manufacturing.”
“Most companies do not face the kind of manufacturing challenges Apple does because most companies do not ship technology innovation at the scale that Apple does. This makes most companies supply chain a bit easier to manage,” Bajarin writes. ” But when I say Apple’s manufacturing is fluid, what I mean is that they can respond to waves of demand and other market changes in real-time.”
This is “why we get a range of supplier reports where one quarter an Apple supplier has a huge quarter, and in the same quarter, another supplier will suggest a decline,” Bajarin writes. “Apple may have all the components they need on hand to scale up or down iPhone XR unit sales for the next six months or longer, but a critical point I think is missed is that the current December quarter should never have been expected to be a big iPhone XR sales quarter as a part of the iPhone mix. Most of the buyers who purchase in the December quarter are the type of consumers who want the latest and greatest and therefore they tend to buy the higher end more premium iPhone.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Shh! We were hoping for sub-$185/share!
If there actually is an issue with iPhone XR sales — and the jury is still way out on that one — that could be a good thing for Apple as it could mean that when spending over $750 on an iPhone, more people than ever say to themselves, “Well, I might as well get the very best one available,” and buy the iPhone Xs Max over iPhone XR. This would positively impact Apple’s iPhone ASP, of course. — MacDailyNews, November 9, 2018
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Even if a particular data point were factual it would be impossible to accurately interpret the data point as to what it meant for our overall business… There is just an inordinate[ly] long list of things that would make any single data point not a great proxy for what’s going on. Apple CEO Tim Cook, January 23, 2013
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