Coronavirus Outbreak Threatens AirPods Production Ramp [Report]

The coronavirus outbreak is threatening Apple's plan to drastically ramp up production of its popular wireless AirPods, according to a new report from Nikkei.

Suppliers in China were forced to halt production for two weeks and could be short on components even after returning to work on Monday, say sources.

The U.S. tech giant had ordered its suppliers to produce up to 45 million units in the first half of the year to keep up with surging demand for the wireless earphones. Now, however, the current stock of AirPods is running low, with most of the finished products reserved for Apple's own online and offline stores, the sources said. Currently, the standard AirPods are still in stock, according to Apple's official online store, while there is a one-month waiting period for the premium AirPods Pro launched last September.


Luxshare, Goertek, and Inventec have halted a majority of production since the Lunar New Year and have at most two weeks worth of materials and components needed for AirPods assembly, sources say. The companies now need to wait for component makers to send fresh supplies.

"Because of the virus outbreak, it has already been about two weeks since the assemblers have shipped any new AirPods series," said a person familiar with the situation. "All of the stores and carriers selling Apple products are really counting on suppliers to resume work next week."

"One of the big concerns is whether other parts suppliers in China can smoothly resume work to produce enough parts for final assembly," the person said. "We really have to wait and see how things play out next week. If the assemblers could not get enough supply of parts in two weeks, it will be a big problem."

The AirPods with Charging Case and AirPods with Wireless Charging Case are still in stock at Apple and Amazon but the AirPods Pro are temporarily out of stock on Amazon and list a four week shipping estimate on Apple.com. If you are looking to get some AirPods we'd suggest purchasing them soon in case supplies get even more constrained.


● AirPods With Charging Case - $139 ($20 off)
● AirPods With Wireless Charging Case - $169 ($30 off)
● AirPods Pro - $234.98 ($14.02 off)

More details in the full report linked below!

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