Heavily reliant on China, Apple’s supply chain will likely at least a month to get back to full capacity due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives says.
Even in a best-case scenario, the iPhone maker’s supply chain won’t be fully functional until early April as workers at Apple’s manufacturing partners return to work in China, Ives wrote in a research note. The disruptions could last until as late as June in a worst case scenario that would probably delay Apple’s fall iPhone release by months, he said.
If Apple’s supply chain gets back to normal by April, the company’s lower priced iPhone may be delayed by several weeks in the spring, but the 5G iPhone release in the fall would probably be unaffected, said Ives, who has an outperform rating on the stock.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple will weather the coronavirus impact and, perhaps, better diversify production, learning some important lessons from their current state of over-reliance on China. The company will come out of this stronger than ever; which is bad, bad news for Apple’s so-called rivals!