When analysts start chatting up Apple execs this week, there’s likely to be no shortage of questions about hardware shortages. 9 to 5 Mac lays out some of what it’ll be listening for. While the call will cover the holiday shopping season, the piece says it’ll “also cover the ongoing impacts of the chip shortage that is limiting some products [availability], as well as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Running through a few impacted products, 9 to 5 Mac says:
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro has a delivery date that starts by the end of February, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro can take up to eight weeks to be delivered (via MacRumors).
Despite four-months on the market, the piece says iPhone 13 Pro can still take “up to three to five days” for online delivery. The report says that shows that “manufacturing disruptions” are still affecting Apple, though - in fairness - it could also show robust demand.
Delivery times for the 256GB iPad mini can take as long as six-weeks, according to 9 to 5 Mac. They blame the chip shortage for that.
Sounds sort of dire, though it’s worth noting that Apple was able to deliver on just about everything over the holidays - Polishing Cloths and iPads not included. Additionally, knowing of the headwinds, Apple execs said on the last call that they expected “solid year-over-year revenue growth” for the holiday-quarter.
We’ll see what they have to say on Thursday when Apple reports earnings for the Q1FY2022. Numbers will hit Apple’s site at the close of trading - 1:30 Pacific/4:30 Eastern. Then, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will field questions from financial types. That starts at 2PM Pacific/5PM Easter…
You can stream it as it happens on Apple’s Investor site. The company will make it available as a podcast soon after. We’ll hit highlights here just hours after the call.
