As the tech industry enters Q3 of 2021, rumors of new Apple products that will launch later this year are circulating. Economic Daily News reports that the Cupertino tech giant has partnered with Taiwanese manufacturer, New Nikko to launch the alleged MacBook Pro models and AirPods in the third quarter of 2021.
New Nikko is one of the world’s largest laptop bearings manufacturer. Currently, it supplies AirPods charging cases and AirPods Pro Max bearings to Apple. However, the report states that the increase in the new laptops and wireless headphones shipments has put immense pressure on the manufacturer, who is working to meet the required components and manpower.
Apple’s estimates a 15% y-o-y increase in the MacBook and AirPods shipments
The person familiar with the matter said that the manufacturer faced component and manpower shortage in the first half of 2021 and now it is working to improve them in the second half of the year.
The legal person further pointed out that New Nikko will cooperate with the new Macbook and AirPods products in the near future to increase capacity utilization. It is estimated that it will drive the operation to become stronger in the second half of the year.
It is reported that the current existing manpower of New Nikko can no longer meet the production. In response to the order demand, it has urgently sought 300 online operators in the Taiwan plant in the first half of this year. It is currently planning to continue to expand production this year.
It was heavily speculated by credible sources that Apple would introduce 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models powered by M1x Apple Silicon and third-generation AirPods at the WWDC21 event in June. However, sources claimed that due to components shortage the launch has been pushed to later this year. The new report states that both products are expected to see up to 15% year-on-year increase in 2021.
The legal person estimates that MacBook shipments this year will reach 23 million units, an annual increase of 15%. In addition, AirPods is currently in a period of replacement of new and old products. The overall shipment volume in the first half of the year is estimated to be only about 25-30 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 25 to 30%. It is expected that the new Airpods will be launched in the second half of the year, and the overall shipment volume will reach 5,000. To 55 million units, an annual increase of 10 to 15%, leading to better operating conditions during peak seasons.
Recently, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also updated that the MacBook Pro models will launch later this year. And DigiTimes wrote that Global Lighting Technologies and Osram Opto are Apple’s suppliers for the display panels for upcoming laptop models.
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