Apple Breaking Up With China is Impossible; Analyst Sees Increase in iPhone Sales Despite Coronavirus

Apple
The logo of U.S. technology company Apple is seen at a branch office in Basel, Switzerland March 2, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

The international coronavirus outbreak maintains to send markets on a rollercoaster ride. As delivery chain disruptions and consumer spending have whipsawed stocks, Apple should nonetheless see a historical income of its iPhone in the next economic year.

Apple's robust ecosystem of gadgets and services, according to a distinguished Wall Street analyst, should see the business enterprise sell more than 231 million phones in 2021, beating the previous data of 231 million sets in 2015.

In a notice on Tuesday, Mar. 3, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said taking a step back while the last few weeks have been an exogenous 'shock event' to Apple's ecosystem on both the supply and demand due to coronavirus outbreak. "We believe this will be short-lived as the longer-term 5G supercycle thesis and services re-rating remain the crux of our bull thesis on Apple for the next 12 to 18 months," Ives added.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook continues to play down the need to shift the tech giant's supply chain drastically. During an interview Thursday with Fox Business Network, Cook said unpredictable occasions are an aspect of modern business and said that Apple's operations group has previously faced with earthquakes, tsunamis, and other challenges.

Clean break with China 'impossible'

Apple has recently commenced experimenting with small production operations out of China. These attempts and its plans to assemble wireless earbuds in Vietnam, iPhones in India, and Macbook Pro computers in the United States, have laid bare some of the difficulties.

However, a clean break with China is impossible. Apple is predicated on a workforce of more than three million oblique employees in China. Its top manufacturer, Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, hires hundreds of seasonal employees in China. Dan Panzica, a former Foxconn executive, told WSJ that a lot of whom are skilled in manually inserting tiny screws and skinny printed circuit boards at some point in the iPhone assembly procedure. Tens of thousands of experienced manufacturing engineers oversee the manner.

Panzica pointed out that Apple won't be able to look for mega-factories anywhere else apart from China. "You're going to have to break them up," he added.

Factories are coming again online

Like many consumer goods companies, Apple was hardly hit by the coronavirus outbreak in China. Thanks to its heavy reliance on the country's manufacturing abilities to drive its supply chain and its significant consumer base in the country.

Foxconn, which produces the majority of Apple's iPhones in China, was forced to temporarily close its factories amid the Chinese government's order to extend the Lunar New Year in February and mass quarantining of millions inside the Wuhan place.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told Fox Business in an interview that the company's manufacturing companions are continuing to ramp up their production abilities to help Apple build out its inventory of gadgets.

China is likewise Apple's third-largest revenue generator with the aid of place behind Europe and the U.S., incomes the enterprise $13.58 billion of its total $91.81 billion sales in Q1 2020. During the peak of the outbreak, the company closed its shops throughout mainland China, appreciably limiting income within the country.

As a result, on Feb. 17, Apple despatched a letter to investors saying the employer would omit its Q2 revenue steering, and chose not to set a new guidance range. Cook also hasn't said whether he believes the damage to Apple's backside line will be constrained to Q2, or if it'll bleed into Q3.

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