Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer
During a conference call, following the announcement of Apple’s latest results, analyst Gene Munster referred to the short supply of iPhones and iPads.
“There is obviously a lot of talk that you guys purposely do this just to create buzz,” Munster said.
Responding, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, said that the shortages are simply a result of Apple selling more products than it expected to and more than it can make.
“In terms of the new product, we do not purposely create a shortage for buzz,” Cook said. “I’m not sure where that comes from, but that is certainly not our objective.”
Apple is currently quoting seven to 10 days for delivery of an iPad and up to three weeks for an iPhone 4 and while Cook said “it is a good problem to have” he added that it is not one Apple wanted.
“We still are quoting longer lead times than we like, and we are working around the clock to try to get supply and demand in balance,” he said. “What we are doing is we’re increasing capacity as quickly as we can, and you know there are a number of things that we have to increase in order to do that. But I am fairly confident that we will be able to increase the capacity. It is not a situation where there is something profound that we can’t eventually increase.”
Clearly production is increasing. Apple announced yesterday that it would start selling the iPad in nine additional countries having revealed that the white iPhone will ship at the end of July, when it will also start shipping the iPhone 4 to 17 extra countries.
