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IPhone 13 Pro disassembled by iFixit: It's the little things that count
Photo: iFixit
So far, the chip shortage seemed to have passed Apple by.
For a long time it seemed logical, because when Apple orders components for iPhones or MacBooks, they are so many that entire factories are busy producing them.
For suppliers, Apple is a kind of major customer de luxe, whose mega orders always secure first place on the list of companies to be supplied.
But this year even the large volume of orders from the iPhone group was no longer sufficient to ensure a steady flow of components, reports »Nikkei Asia«. At the beginning of October, the Chinese factories that manufacture iPhones and iPads came to a standstill for the first time in more than a decade, writes the industry magazine. The authors refer to conversations with people who are familiar with the processes. Apple has not commented on the information.
The authors of the text calculate that Apple, as of the beginning of December, will be able to produce around 83 to 85 million copies of the new iPhone 13 series by the end of the year.
The original goal of producing 95 million devices in this series would be clearly missed.
The company had planned to produce a total of 230 million iPhones of all models currently on offer in 2021.
According to »Nikkei Asia«, it will miss this target by 15 million pieces.
Small stuff slows you down
It had looked good for a long time.
In contrast to many of its competitors, the group hardly suffered from the chip crisis; production of the M1 and A15 chips developed by Apple for iPhones, iPads and Macs apparently went largely as planned.
According to the report, what Apple now stumbled upon were deliveries of small and tiny components.
It should be about components that often only cost a few cents and are by no means produced exclusively for iPhones, but are built into many products from many manufacturers.
It is stated, for example, that Bosch acceleration sensors could not be produced as planned due to power cuts in China.
In Malaysia, the production of the digital compass chip for the iPhone 13 was stopped due to the lockdown.
Only little things, but little things without which an iPhone cannot be completed.
The delivery times are getting longer
When the latest quarterly figures were announced in October, CEO Tim Cook said that the chip crisis and corona restrictions cost Apple money.
The bottlenecks had pushed sales back then by six billion dollars.
At the same time, CFO Luca Maestri warned that the negative effect would be even greater for the current quarter.
For consumers, the alleged production problems mean above all that anyone who wants to give away an iPhone for Christmas should hurry up.
"Nikkei Asia" has compiled a list of expected delivery times for certain iPhone and iPad models, but it does not appear to be particularly accurate.
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A quick check in the German Apple Store on Wednesday morning showed that an iPhone 13 Pro with 256 GB of storage would be delivered on December 22nd, while a MacBook Pro with a 14-inch display would not arrive until January 7th, an iPad with 64 GB of storage even on January 31st at the earliest.
In many cases, however, the following applies: In the Apple Store there are a number of products to take away.
And if they are not in stock there, there are still quite a few other dealers who may have the desired device in stock.
Only with the color one may have to be flexible.
