The shortage of components, the war in Ukraine and the restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have been disrupting the entire industry for several months now, and Apple today seems particularly impacted by the latest measures taken in China.
Since the start of the pandemic, China has applied a “Zero Covid” policy, and recently decreed widespread confinement in several cities of the country after a few cases of COVID-19 were detected.
As we saw last month, the workers of the Shanghai Gigafactory, for example, were forced to sleep on site. Even worse, chaos had gripped an Apple factory in Shanghai in recent days, since the employees had demonstrated and even tried to flee the factory to return to their homes. Unsurprisingly, these protest movements have impacted production rates, and therefore greatly extended the delivery times of Apple products for consumers.
Some Apple devices won’t be available for several months
As we can see on the official Apple website, some devices have seen their delivery times lengthen in recent days. While most iPhone models are available for next day deliverythis is far from the case for other devices such as MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, Apple Watch or iPad.
Indeed, when you try to order one of the new 14 or 16 inch MacBook Pros on the official Apple store, it specifies that customers will have to wait 7-9 weeks before receiving the device. As for the Mac Studio, the company’s most powerful computer, delivery will take another 3 to 4 weeks for the model with an M1 Max chip, and 7 to 9 weeks for the M1 Max version.
The iPad Air 2022 which was presented at the beginning of spring is not spared from the disruptions on the production line either. For example, you need wait 4 to 5 weeks for a purple tablet, and up to 6 weeks for space gray. On the Apple Watch side, some models are available quite quickly, but most smartwatches won’t be available for many weeks.
