According to reports out of China, Apple has begun to dominate the supply chain both in shipping and manufacturing, squeezing out other companies. According to reports, major supply chain shipping companies including both FedEx and UPS have "incredibly high" volumes for the holiday quarter, just from Apple's logistics under the weight of a new product lineup.
A report at
TechCrunch notes that a large manufacturer was told by shippers that some holiday season deadlines couldn't be met because they were booked solid by a "very important customer." Apple is expected to launch a mass refresh of products next week, with shipments arriving at customers' doors shortly after the announcement.
The move isn't without precedent. Logistics executive John Martin worked with Apple and Steve Jobs to launch the original iMac. An interview with Martin found the former executive claiming that "to ensure that the company's new, translucent blue iMacs would be widely available at Christmas the following year, Jobs paid $50 million to buy up all the available holiday air freight space."
Similar volumes were seen out of China last year, with estimates pegging Apple's volume at 75 percent of all FedEx and UPS traffic out of the manufacturing areas of China for a few weeks.
Electronista has learned that in shipping hubs for FedEx across the US, vacation time and paid time off is strictly limited in October due to "high volume from a big tech company."
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