William Gallagher
Apple's Jeff Williams says that supply chains are running well and that the company is optimistic about the future for the economy both for itself and for America as a whole.
Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams says that he's optimistic about how the company and the larger US economy can recover from the damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
"I am optimistic," he told Fox Business in an interview. "As you look around, you see the resilience of the people working through this challenging time. And when I take a look inside of Apple, I couldn't be more encouraged."
"You know," he continued, "during [the] last quarter, we — even though these are challenging times — we launched three new products. And I feel great about the economy in the long haul. And it's just a matter of getting from here to there."
Pressed about whether that means Apple and the US recovering quickly, he stressed that he is speaking as a COO, not as an economist. "It's hard to make a prediction on exactly when and how it will roll out," he said. "But I feel great about the long haul."
"You know, our supply chains are running largely at capacity and people are continuing to work," he continued. "I couldn't be prouder of the Apple team and how resourceful they've been. You'll see us opening retail stores in the coming weeks and like I said, we're bullish in the long haul."
Regarding the continued speculation that the "iPhone 12" will be delayed by a month, Williams would neither confirm nor deny, but he did answer about how Apple sees these reports.
"We just put our head down and don't pay a lot of attention to the latest sort of speculation about our products," he said. "We put our head down and get our work done. I couldn't be prouder of the team finding new ways to get their job done. We're not typically a work-at-home kind of culture at Apple, it's not part of our playbook. And people have been really resourceful and we're moving the ball forward. We are getting stuff done."
Williams did also speak to what he sees as a misunderstanding about Apple's reliance on particular companies or countries.
"Our products are global products and so... they aren't built in one location," he said. "There's a real misconception about that. And our products are built around the world, with a ton of that right here in the United States."
"I see we'll have a global supply chain for quite some time and that's going to allow us to make the very best products for our customers," he continued.
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36 Comments
Let's hope the recovery is quick. My concern is several states (like mine) remaining on lockdown the both the curve has been crushed (not flattened) but the evidence is starting to show extended lockdown does more harm than good. We can't recover until business can open, even if that initially means no dine-in and pubic gathering initially, followed by distancing , followed by more normalcy through the summer. Hard to recover when you're still under stay-at-home orders like we are in PA, NJ, DE, MD, etc.
As far as the economy goes I don’t want to hear a single politician claim the virus did this. The virus did nothing to the economy. The politician’s response to the virus did this to the economy. And no, I don’t think the recovery will be quick at all. Does anyone really think all those people who lost their jobs will wake up one morning to find their job is back?
Finally, I’m bracing myself to endure the politicians congratulating each other on how they saved the world from the apocalypse. “I saved you. You must vote for me if you value your life!” I already received my stimulus check letter from Trump saying just that. More to come from Cuomo, Pritzker (Illinois), etc. The news media will switch from 24/7/365 coverage of the virus to 24/7/365 coverage of the blame game that is sure to follow.
Hey Lkrupp, I almost entirely agree with you. People are fooling themselves if they think this pandemic is like a thunderstorm which darkens the sky, dumps some rain they the sun returns the next day and the birds are chirping. There will constant outbreaks and spikes for years to come. We are dealing with something the most brilliant medical minds are just starting to understand and they realize how little they really know about the effects and possible mutation of this virus. Our economy is based on consumer spending and people only spend money when they are somewhat optimistic about the present and near future. My neighbors are dying, I've been in shutdown since mid-march, I fear states who ignore safety to re-open will keep this virus spreading for another years at least.
I mean, what else could he say? “Sorry America, we’re fubar’d."