Apple has been weathering the semiconductor crisis as best it can for some time now, in part thanks to the fact that its CEO is a master of operations and logistics. But when there is not enough, little can be done. Sources have reported this weekend about Apple being forced to take action with its suppliers.
It has been Gizchina who has reflected the message of a leaker from the Chinese social network Weibo, who affirms that from Apple they have had to reduce the order of chips they had ordered by about 120,000 units (taking a wafer of chips as the unit), which may affect the availability of future products. Even when suppliers grant Apple special treatment (their business is their core business for many of them), there has been no guarantee that their initial orders can be fulfilled.
When there’s not enough, there’s no choice but to pull out the scissors
This reduction will affect the 7, 5 and 3 nm chips, impacting the availability of current and future models. 3nm technology is the one that will be used for future Apple Silicon ranges (M3 chip, for example), and therefore we could see a low availability of the computers that we see from now on.
The iPhone 15 may also be affected by this, since according to rumors they will also use the 3 nanometer process for their hypothetical A17 Bionic chips. The consequence? We have already seen it well in Apple’s latest financial results: for the first time, a production shortage of the iPhone 14 has caused a decrease in the company’s Christmas revenue.
This will also end up contributing to the price of future products such as the iPhone 15 or the next Mac to continue to rise. Low supply and high demand means that these products are going to be more expensive. We’ll see if in the end Tim Cook is right with what he said about the willingness of the market to buy more expensive iPhone models.
Image | laura ockell