In brief: Two of Apple's key executives are moving on from the company, and while both departures had been planned in advance, they come at a time when Apple's supply chain is seriously disrupted by the coronavirus crisis.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is losing two key people with long histories at the company. One of the veteran executives is Nick Forlenza, vice president of manufacturing design, who has decided to retire. The second is Duco Pasmooji, also a vice president that worked on operations who had announced his intentions to move on from the company in the near future. He is currently the head of Apple's augmented reality projects.
While not related to recent events, the departures come at a time when Apple is trying its best to reduce the impact from the coronavirus crisis and to manage expectations around worldwide iPhone shipments. Supply chain issues aside, this week the company tried to stop one of its former executives from publishing a book that it claims is betraying some of its most guarded business secrets.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams both come from operations, and so is the newest member of the executive team, Sabih Kahn.
The company was initially optimistic about iPhone 12 demand before the coronavirus outbreak, but even with Cook's supply chain mastery there's a lot of uncertainty around the launch and Foxconn's ability to deliver the much-awaited 5G handsets.
Reuters says high-volume manufacturing is set to begin in the summer, so Apple has to deal with travel restrictions in the meantime to conduct validation efforts at Foxconn.