Coronavirus threatens AirPods production as stock dwindles

Apple ordered the production of 45 million AirPods units to keep up with consumer demand, but the coronavirus appears to be delivering both extended labor and material shortages.

As the 2019 Novel Coronavirus continues to spread across mainland China, Apple suppliers are reporting that they don't have enough material or labor needed to assemble products.

Apple's AirPods series may be the first to see significant delays and shortages. Apple AirPods Pro, for example, are already seeing delays of a full month on Apple's online store.

Apple had ordered suppliers to produce up to 45 million units to keep up with the demand. However, the coronavirus outbreak forced suppliers to halt operations for two weeks, putting many delays in the supply chain.

"Because of the virus outbreak, it has already been about two weeks since the assemblers have shipped any new AirPods series," a person familiar with the situation told Nikkei Asian Review. "All of the stores and carriers selling Apple products are really counting on suppliers to resume work next week."

Luxshare, Goertek, and Inventec — the three leading AirPods manufacturers — halted a majority of production since the Chinese New Year break began. A source told Nikkei that the suppliers have, at most, two weeks' worth of materials for AirPods assembly. The manufacturers will need to wait for component makers across China to restart operations. Any additional delays are likely to cause further problems in the supply chain.

Travel restrictions also threaten production, as many locations are seeking to minimize excessive amounts of travel to prevent the unnecessary spread of disease.

Companies are also worried that employees may bring the viruses into factories, where close-proximity contact could quickly spread the disease across tens of thousands of employees. However, some employers are willing to take the risk. Inventec plans to restart production on February 10.

While AirPods may be the first Apple product to see significant delays and shortages due to the coronavirus, it might not be the only one. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is starting to see disruption in the mobile phone market as a result of the coronavirus, and has slightly dialed back iPhone shipment expectations for the first calendar quarter of 2020.

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19 Comments

JinTech 1057 comments · 9 Years

About 4 years ago

I would rather the workers be safe and healthy than possibly getting more people contaminated.

kevin kee 1289 comments · 10 Years

About 4 years ago

This virus has been getting out of control for a while now, but it has never felt so real until one of your friends or families get affected. I have friends currently stuck for 14 days on board of Diamond Princess near Japan along with 3000+ others with 20 confirmed already hospitalized.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

About 4 years ago

JinTech said:

I would rather the workers be safe and healthy than possibly getting more people contaminated.

kevin kee said:

This virus has been getting out of control for a while now, but it has never felt so real until one of your friends or families get affected. I have friends currently stuck for 14 days on board of Diamond Princess near Japan along with 3000+ others with 20 confirmed already hospitalized.

I'm curious about the psychology of your statements. It sucks that people you know are infected and having so many unknowns means that the gov't, WHO, CDC, and other organizations need to be very proactive in how they deal with new, virulent illness, but I can't help look at this objectively to see how other viruses and diseases affect the populace each year with hardly any fanfare from the media. For example, in the US alone more than 8,000 have died this flu season and over 50,000 have died from pneumonia in the past year. That's a much high death rate per capita than we're seeing from corona virus. A few years ago ebola was the big scare but then I stopped hearing about it after it and yet a quick google search will show that there were 1000 cases in 3 months within the last year which has a rate of death at about 50%.

In case emotion has made someone overlook my key points: corona virus needs to be a focus for the professionals and if you one fo the few who know someone who is infected you should be pray (or whatever you do) for them, but you should also do that for everyone you know with cancer, the flu, etc. The average person shouldn't be making this their daily focus right now and yet I can't escape talk of it because the media is relentless when it comes to fear focusing. If your focus is that Apple may sell make and sell AirPods then sell your flipping stock you sociopath.

“People living in the U.S. should still not be worried,” Brown said. “There are only 11 known cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., while we now have nearly 20 million ill with influenza in the current flu season and at least 10,000 deaths from the flu this flu season.”

• https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-well-know-if-the-wuhan-coronavirus-has-become-1841458361

M68000 880 comments · 7 Years

About 4 years ago

Soli said:

JinTech said:

I would rather the workers be safe and healthy than possibly getting more people contaminated.

kevin kee said:

This virus has been getting out of control for a while now, but it has never felt so real until one of your friends or families get affected. I have friends currently stuck for 14 days on board of Diamond Princess near Japan along with 3000+ others with 20 confirmed already hospitalized.

I'm curious about the psychology of your statements. It sucks that people you know are infected and having so many unknowns means that the gov't, WHO, CDC, and other organizations need to be very proactive in how they deal with new, virulent illness, but I can't help look at this objectively to see how other viruses and diseases affect the populace each year with hardly any fanfare from the media. For example, in the US alone more than 8,000 have died this flu season and over 50,000 have died from pneumonia in the past year. That's a much high death rate per capita than we're seeing from corona virus. A few years ago ebola was the big scare but then I stopped hearing about it after it and yet a quick google search will show that there were 1000 cases in 3 months within the last year which has a rate of death at about 50%.

In case emotion has made someone overlook my key points: corona virus needs to be a focus for the professionals and you know someone who is infected you should be pray (or whatever you do) for them, but you should also do that for everyone you know with cancer, the flu, etc. The average person shouldn't be making this their daily focus right now and yet I can't escape talk of it because the media is relentless when it comes to fear focusing.

“People living in the U.S. should still not be worried,” Brown said. “There are only 11 known cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., while we now have nearly 20 million ill with influenza in the current flu season and at least 10,000 deaths from the flu this flu season.”

• https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-well-know-if-the-wuhan-coronavirus-has-become-1841458361
The big difference is that the world has vaccine for flu and there is no vaccine for this new virus. It is also not as understood as the flu is. There is risk of this becoming worldwide problem, it is scary. Look at how fast things went bad in China. One of the key things to be proven is how long it lasts on surfaces, this needs to be found out and proven for everyone to know. It is highly contagious which is a huge problem. Let’s hope for better news soon.

CloudTalkin 916 comments · 5 Years

About 4 years ago

Soli said:

JinTech said:

I would rather the workers be safe and healthy than possibly getting more people contaminated.

kevin kee said:

This virus has been getting out of control for a while now, but it has never felt so real until one of your friends or families get affected. I have friends currently stuck for 14 days on board of Diamond Princess near Japan along with 3000+ others with 20 confirmed already hospitalized.

I'm curious about the psychology of your statements. It sucks that people you know are infected and having so many unknowns means that the gov't, WHO, CDC, and other organizations need to be very proactive in how they deal with new, virulent illness, but I can't help look at this objectively to see how other viruses and diseases affect the populace each year with hardly any fanfare from the media. For example, in the US alone more than 8,000 have died this flu season and over 50,000 have died from pneumonia in the past year. That's a much high death rate per capita than we're seeing from corona virus. A few years ago ebola was the big scare but then I stopped hearing about it after it and yet a quick google search will show that there were 1000 cases in 3 months within the last year which has a rate of death at about 50%.

In case emotion has made someone overlook my key points: corona virus needs to be a focus for the professionals and you know someone who is infected you should be pray (or whatever you do) for them, but you should also do that for everyone you know with cancer, the flu, etc. The average person shouldn't be making this their daily focus right now and yet I can't escape talk of it because the media is relentless when it comes to fear focusing.

“People living in the U.S. should still not be worried,” Brown said. “There are only 11 known cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., while we now have nearly 20 million ill with influenza in the current flu season and at least 10,000 deaths from the flu this flu season.”

• https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-well-know-if-the-wuhan-coronavirus-has-become-1841458361

The problem isn't in their statements. The problem lies in your query. People can care about more than one thing. The point you're making ignores that fact, and creates a binary one-upsmanship. @JinTech can show concern for the workers, @Kevin Kee can feel bad about his friend on the boat, and both can feel bad about the number of deaths from this flu season. Since the topic is about the coronavirus, it would kind seem odd to start a conversation about the flu don't you think? Not talking about it doesn't mean they aren't concerned. They just aren't addressing that concern here... in a coronavirus thread.

This reminds me of that one friend we all have. You know the one. If you say "I broke my leg" when I fell in a bike crash." He'll say, "Aw man, that's pretty bad. I broke my leg, arm, and my brain pan when I was on a bike that was hit by an 18 wheeler being driven by ninja... who was transporting a great white/orca hybrid that nearly bit me into when the tanker cracked and created a 33 foot tidal wave that nearly drowned me.