On September 24, iPhone 13 series was available on Apple’s online and retail stores, worldwide. However, the delivery dates of the new flagship series have been extended by 30 days. NikkieAsia reports that the delivery dates are lengthened because COVID-19 related supply chain disruptions in Vietnam.
If iPhone 13 Pro models are ordered today in the United States, it has Nov 1-Nov 8 delivery time, iPhone 13 has Oct 20-25 and iPhone 13 mini has Oct 12-15 free delivery times.
Supply of iPhone 13 models camera module is affected by Vietnam’s new COVID-19 wave
Although Apple procures components in advance, the company’s decision to introduce sensor-shift image stabilization across iPhone 13 series is causing supply chain constraints because that has put pressure on suppliers to increase production while maintaining quality “against the backdrop of severe restrictions due to COVID.” However, the situation might improve by mid-October.
“Assemblers can still produce the new iPhones, but there’s a supply gap [in] that the inventories of the camera modules are running low,” one of the executives with direct knowledge told Nikkei Asia. “There’s nothing we can do but to monitor the situation in Vietnam every day and wait for them to ramp up the output.”
The situation may improve as soon as around mid-October as production at one of the key iPhone camera module manufacturing facilities in southern Vietnam has gradually resumed in recent days after several months of on-and-off disruption, another executive familiar with the situation told Nikkei.
Earlier it was reported that workers were sleeping in factors to avoid COVID-19 related production disruptions.
Authorities have worked with companies “to have them arrange for their workers to sleep in the factories and in dormitories while also having them tested every week,” said Nguyen Dai Luong, chairman of the People’s Council of Viet Yen district, where four of the province’s five operating industrial parks are located.”
In the wake of the US-China trade war, Apple, Samsung, and other manufacturers moved some of the production operations out to China to Vietnam which led to the country’s growth. However, an increase in COVID-19 Delta variant cases in the southern part of Vietnam has hit its tech hubs, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong Province.
