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Apple’s annual conference, held in early June every year, in serious doubt
From iphone production to WWDC 2020, how will the coronavirus impact on Apple?
APPLE’S WORLDWIDE DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE (WWDC) COULD BE THE LATEST EVENT TO FALL FOUL OF THE WIDESPREAD OUTBREAK OF COVID-19, THE NEW ILLNESS CAUSED BY THE CORONAVIRUS THAT HAS WREAKED HAVOC IN
THE GLOBAL MARKETS, AFFECTED WESTERN SUPPLY CHAINS AND NOW, MAJOR EVENTS FROM SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN THE TECH WORLD.
Samsung and Google have already fallen foul, cancelling their MWC and I/O events respectively.
Apple is now under serious pressure to follow suit.
WWDC is, of course, the next big
Apple keynote in the calendar, and the one where we get to see the new generation of software for IOS devices, Macs, Apple Watches and Apple TVS. Although invites aren’t normally sent until the middle of April, WWDC has traditionally been held in early June. And despite that being a few months away, it’s looking highly unlikely that WWDC will be able to take place
– or at least in its normal guise. If travel bans continue then Tim Cook and his gang could be hosting behind closed doors to an empty auditorium.
In truth, Apple has been relatively quiet during the outbreak. A leaked memo obtained by Bloomberg to Apple staff from Tim Cook was about as interesting as it got to start with. “I want to thank everyone for their dedication, empathy, understanding, and care,” Cook wrote. “Our paramount concern is with the people who make up Apple’s community of employees, partners, customers, and suppliers in China.”
Shortly afterwards, in an interview with Fox Business, Tim Cook said he was optimistic that normal supplier service would resume imminently. “It feels to me that China is getting the coronavirus under control,” he said. “I mean you look at the numbers, they’re coming down day by day by day. And so I’m very optimistic there. On the supplier side, we have suppliers – you know, iphone is built everywhere in the world. We have key components coming from the United States, we have key parts that are in China, and so on and so forth.” Cook continued: “When you look at the parts that are done in China, we have reopened factories, so the factories were able to work through the conditions to reopen. They’re reopening. They’re also en-ramp, and so I think of this as sort of the third phase of getting back to normal. And we’re in phase three of the ramp mode.”
But while the outbreak in China may have slowed down, it is ramping up across the world. In Italy, Iran and South Korea, the number of those infected is on the rise, and that will continue to have a huge
impact on Apple’s supply chain and ability to shift units.
Cook’s interview also came off the back of an update to investors in which Apple reforecasted its quarterly figures. The statement read: “Work is starting to resume around the country, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated. As a result, we do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter.” So, the more positive spin Cook puts on the headlines, the calmer investors will be. Makes sense.
Just how coronavirus will affect Apple’s calendar of product launches is yet to be seen. But with the much-rumoured iphone SE follow-up and a new set of ipads supposedly imminent, we’ll have a pretty good idea before long. If these releases don’t amount to anything, then it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year. It could be that the new iphones still go on sale in the autumn, but with limited stock. While this doesn’t spell disaster for Apple – it is one of the biggest companies in the world with a cash stockpile far greater than most countries – it does make for a bumpy year ahead. If anything, it does highlight an over reliance on China as a supplier. Apple already has a fraught relationship with China, highlighted by the ongoing trade war, and last year’s economic downturn in the Far East had a major impact on iphone sales. Will coronavirus do the same? Only time will tell.