After reports of Airpods Pro 2 and iPhone shortages, Morgan Stanley has revealed that Apple’s most in-demand Pro models will also fall short of earlier shipment estimates by 6 million units due to the disruption at their main assembly hub in China.
The shortfall from the previous 85 million handsets estimate is entirely down to the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
Assemblers of the iPhone are now expected to ship 79 million units in the current quarter, analysts led by Sharon Shih wrote this week.
“The wait time for 14 Pro/Pro Max has extended to four to five weeks as of late versus two to four weeks a month ago, implying demand stays healthy, even with supply gap,” they wrote.
It is estimated that the wait on the Pro models might be longer than five weeks for customers who purchase iPhones from local retailers like Optus or Telstra, since they can only do backorders which take considerable time for sold out devices.
Foxconn is Apple’s biggest iPhone vendor, accounting for up to 70 per cent of global iPhone shipments annually.
China’s lockdown around the world’s largest iPhone factory with zero notice earlier this month had already been a matter of grievance for Apple since hundreds of thousands of units are manufactured a day during peak production. Its 200,000 strong Zhengzhou workforce is vital to Apple hitting its production target.
Currently, local governments near Zhengzhou have arranged buses to ferry workers to Hon Hai’s plant over the weekend to help the Taiwanese company return to full capacity.
