The Cupertino-based tech juggernaut Apple has asked its suppliers based in China to boost production by up to 80 million iPhones in the first half of this year. To put things into perspective, it is a 10% rise in the production volume compared to last year’s production in the same period which has helped the company’s share price to escalate ahead.
This year is going to be super busy for Apple as it has a few models coming up in the spring and later in the fall as well. However, China is facing an outbreak of the threat of coronavirus which is believed to have originated from China’s Hubei Province. As per reports, Hubei Province has seen more than 100 confirmed cases of people suffering from Coronavirus and the numbers are expected to rise. China’s Henan and Guangdong Provinces where Apple has two production factories are near Hubei Province which has become one of the reasons why people are fearing about iPhone production.
According to a supply chain executive, the outbreak of Coronavirus could affect the production schedule for the upcoming iPhone 9 which is scheduled to undergo mass production in the third week of February followed by its launch in March. Although Apple relies on a dual-sourcing system which means if one of its factories is affected, others can work to complete the production schedule.
Also, Chinese authorities have asked people to stay at home and avoid coming in contact with anyone which could be a major blow to iPhone 9 production. In fact, this has helped Apple’s market share dropped by almost 2.9% as of Monday. The virus is also likely to affect the production of Apple AirPods as the company projected a huge 45 million units to manufacture in the first half of this year.
This forecast is based on the 60 million units of AirPods sold last year. Although it is expected that Apple will continue producing iPhone 9 units, it won’t be much on point than the estimated volume so thus, the availability will be limited if indeed the virus causes any disruption in the production.
