Are the AirPods you bought available?

Since the launch of AirPods Pro, this wireless headset with noise reduction has continued to be out of stock. Except for a few consumers who got their new headsets quickly after purchasing, most of them are waiting for the hardship.

If your AirPods or AirPods Pro are still waiting, you may have waited longer. Because of the outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus, people are working from home, and many offline factories that rely on human resources have almost stopped production, which will also affect the production and shipment of AirPods.

▲ Foxconn employees wear masks to attend the company ’s annual meeting in Taipei (the left-most way is wrong, do n’t learn). Picture from: Reuters

According to Nikkei Asian Review reports that several sources have indicated that Apple wants to significantly increase AirPods production Threatened by a coronavirus outbreak in China. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese suppliers have been suspended for two weeks (the downtime may be extended). Even if the supplier resumes work on Monday, the first week’s productivity may reach up to 50%, and there may still be zero Shortage of parts.

Lixon Precision, GoerTek, and Inventec, the three key manufacturers of AirPods, have stopped most of their production. Several people familiar with the matter said that the three companies currently have up to two weeks of AirPods assembly materials and parts needed, and more raw materials must wait for component manufacturers across China to restart production in order to restore the supply chain to the highest level .

Nikkei Asian Review cited Informed sources said that the outbreak has caused assemblers not to issue a new AirPods Pro for about two weeks.

All stores and operators selling Apple products are counting on suppliers to resume work next week … but the big question is whether other parts suppliers in China can resume production smoothly to produce enough parts to For assembly. We have to wait and see what happens next week. If assemblers don’t get enough parts supply in two weeks, that will be a big problem.

Research institutions have estimated that Apple ’s AirPods sales will be 35 million units in 2018, compared with the previous market ’s estimated sales of 50 million units in 2019. From the point of view of AirPods Pro prices rising, the number of AirPods Rro that are still out of stock Still in short supply.

In the TWS Bluetooth headset segment, Apple still accounts for more than 50% of the market.

According to a research report published by Strategy Analytics, “Global Bluetooth Headset Sales and Revenue Forecast 2001-2024 “shows that AirPods sales in 2019 reached nearly 60 million. Sales of TWS Bluetooth headsets increased by 200% in 2019, and Apple’s growth accounted for 71%.

Growth is so fast, but production can’t keep up. It can even be said that Apple’s AirPods have also fallen into a “productivity hell.” This is not marketing hunger, but user demand for AirPods has ran ahead of productivity.

According to Digital Age , TWS Bluetooth Kangkong-KY, a headphone component supplier, invested in R & D equipment for customers in April, but the final product release was six months later than expected. Even under this “grass first” situation, the situation of supply and demand is still very serious.

According to Kang Kang-KY optimistic forecast , order visibility has been seen all the way to June 2020, and the first quarter of next year may not be worse than the fourth quarter of 2019. Its financial Chang Huang Qiaosheng referred to the shortage of AirPods as an “overflow phenomenon.” He said that the acoustic components required by AirPods had sufficient production capacity. The key was that the downstream headphone assembly plant had insufficient production capacity and could not make it.

It is reported that Airpods Pro is a Product with heavy labor cost. The manpower demand is very amazing. A production line with a monthly production capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 sets requires 2,000 employees to assemble. If 5 production lines are required, 10,000 people must be hired.

At that time, the industry thought that this shortage would be alleviated by Apple’s new supplier in 2020. But from the current situation, maybe the new supplier can really increase the assembly volume, but under the influence of the epidemic, it is impossible to guarantee the supply of parts and components to AirPods production.

▲ Cook visits AirPods factory

Apple had expected suppliers to produce up to 45 million AirPos in the first half of this yeards to meet the surge in demand. But now, we can put January Cook to answer analysts How about AirPods capacity Follow up the answer to review it:

I can’t predict when now … we seem to be quite far from that, but we are already working to increase capacity.