What They Say
Nikkei did a deep dive using two journalists in Taiwan, on the issues that Apple is facing in the supply chain for the iPhone 13. The paper said that Apple is missing out on millions of units of iPhones and iPads. It characterises the current period as a ‘perfect storm of pandemic factory lockdowns, logistics troubles and energy generation squeezes’. The paper interviewed more than 20 executives in three continents.
The paper said that production of the iPhone 13 is 20% short of previous plans, even though it prioritised its premium models. The iPhone production for the year is likely to be 15 million short of 230 million handsets for the year. iPad production was even more impacted and is said to be 50% down.
The article includes an interesting table of suppliers for different components and based on the disruptions mentioned below. The display is covered by items 5 & 6 – chain reactions and price changes. It also highlights that the ‘
real headache comes from the tiny “peripheral components that used to cost only a few cents and which used to attract little attention” such as power management chips and transceivers from TI, Nexperia and Broadcom that are not exclusive to the iPhone.
The site looked at delivery dates on the Apple website. It also highlighted that these problems are ‘even deeper’ at other companies.
What We Think
This is a substantial article that is worth a look if you are being affected by these issues. As well as the supply chain issues, it looks at problems caused by US security concerns over Chinese companies. (BR)
