Apple Suppliers Working During the Chinese New Year to Keep Up with Strong Demand

[Akshay Masand]

Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partners are said to be foregoing a traditional work stoppage during the important Chinese New Year in a bid to meet ongoing high demand for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. There aren’t too many details but Taiwan’s United Daily News claims that Hon Hai Precision Industries and Flexium Interconnect will keep certain production lines open during the Chinese New Year to keep up with demand for Apple’s newest iDevices. China’s most important holiday will start on February 10.

According to the publication, Hon Hai which is better known as Foxconn, will be operating a number of iPhone and iPad mini assembly lines while Flexium will keep its factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province staffed with “a large number” of trained student workers. If it turns out to be true, the work continuation will mirror an identical decision made in 2011 by Apple partner Pegatron, which offered employees triple pay to work over the Chinese New Year. No such bump in pay has been reported for 2013 as of yet.

The move to keep facilities running during the holiday indicates that the supply is just barely meeting demand as evidenced by the U.S. Apple Online Store’s on week wait time for all iPad mini models. The iPhone 5, which is continuing to be Apple’s most ambitious rollout ever recently had the handset debut in its 101st market, the Caribbean island of St. Kitts on Thursday. As pointed out by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, the latest launch received little fanfare from press outlets. It’s still quite impressive to see Apple rolling out the popular handset so quickly.

Source: Fortune, United Daily News via Brightwire

[fleurya]

Do you western new year in China, or the actual celebrated Chinese new year? They are two different things with one being over 2 months away. Would they really be deciding that so soon?

[unison999]

Gregorian Calendar New Year is nothing, the real New Years celebration in China is Chinese New Year.
This article is just another reporter trying to use something significant to U.S. and apply to others hoping to drum up some attention to his story.

[CCNPJediHacker]

Gregorian Calendar New Year is nothing, the real New Years celebration in China is Chinese New Year.
This article is just another reporter trying to use something significant to U.S. and apply to others hoping to drum up some attention to his story.

Please no rhetoric spouting here. New year is for everyone at different times. None is more "real" than the other.

[Barc]

Do you western new year in China, or the actual celebrated Chinese new year? They are two different things with one being over 2 months away. Would they really be deciding that so soon?

It is a big deal over there. Its an entire week of holiday in China. 2 weeks in some provinces.