According Nikkei Asia’s analysis through more than two months of shipping data, consumers are still waiting up to nine weeks for new iPads, as Apple go through the arduous process of clearing the backlog from last year caused by the global chip shortage.
Eager buyers in 25 key regions and countries who ordered a new 64GB iPad from Apple’s site on January 28 are facing an average wait of around 50 days, only a small improvement from early December, when the wait time was 55 days.
However, if you’re after certain models of iPhone, the wait has decreased from over a month late Last year to around 10 days.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the iPad is the only product category that didn’t build in Q4, due to supply constraints, adding, “But overall, we do see an improvement in the March quarter in terms of the constraints going down versus what they were in the December quarter.”
Still, analysis shows some Asian markets are still up for long wait times. If you’re in the Philippines, expect to wait up to 63 days for a space grey 256GB iPad.
Apple are saying the shortage in what they call legacy node chips, which handle power management and display functions, hit the iPad hard, with revenue for the sector dropping 14.1 per cent.
The problem here is that, with 8-inch displays, iPad’s need a lot of display drivers, which need legacy process nodes.
But when the chip shortage hit last year, Apple started switching shared components from the iPad line to their new iPhone 13 in order to make things as smooth as possible for their flagship product through the lucrative holiday season.
With improvements in the supply chain by early December, Apple told iPhone assemblers to ramp up production.
Now, delivery time for the latest iPhones and Apple Watch are significantly shorter, showing where Apple believe the money is.
