Oliver Haslam on March 2, 2020, 8:49 pm

Analyst Says iPhone Production Won’t Significantly Improve Just Yet, Here’s Why

With Apple’s supply chain partners still struggling to get back up to speed following the initial coronavirus outbreak, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that we probably shouldn’t expect iPhone production to significantly increase just yet.

This comes after Kuo shared a research note that MacRumors was able to share. While the initial report hasn’t been directly quoted, the MacRumors report says that “production will not significantly improve until the second quarter of 2020”.

However, we’re already into the second quarter of 2020, so it isn’t entirely clear how Kuo expects things to pan out here. The company which makes iPhone camera lenses, Genius Electronics Optical, is mentioned in particular with its output having fallen sharply of late.

Kuo believes that inventory of the parts the company produces is already starting to run low, with around a month left before they’re exhausted. That situation isn’t expected to improve until “may at the earliest”.

Apple and its suppliers continue to try to come to terms with factory closures throughout China following the outbreak of coronavirus. LG Innotek is another company that provides parts for iPhone cameras, but it closed a South Korean factory over the weekend after a worker came down with coronavirus. It isn’t expected to re-open until tomorrow at the earliest.

Apple, of course, isn’t the only company feeling the impact of coronavirus. But CEO Tim Cook recently said that he believed the current supply chain issues to be a temporary problem, rather than one that will continue. Apple, its suppliers, and everyone in between will surely be hoping that he’s correct on that one.