Apple Set to Cut iPhone Production Goals Due to Chip Crunch (bloomberg.com) 27
Apple is likely to slash its projected iPhone 13 production targets for 2021 by as many as 10 million units as prolonged chip shortages hit its flagship product. Bloomberg reports: The company had expected to produce 90 million new iPhone models in the last three months of the year, but it's now telling manufacturing partners that the total will be lower because Broadcom and Texas Instruments are struggling to deliver enough components [...]. The technology giant is one of the world's largest chip buyers and sets the annual rhythm for the electronics supply chain. But even with strong buying power, Apple is grappling with the same supply disruptions that have wreaked havoc on industries around the world. Major chipmakers have warned that demand will continue to outpace supply throughout next year and potentially beyond. Apple gets display parts from Texas Instruments, while Broadcom is its longtime supplier of wireless components. One TI chip in short supply for the latest iPhones is related to powering the OLED display. Apple also is facing component shortages from other suppliers.
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Sigh... More QAnon bullshit. Random anonymous posters on the Internet are not "people in the know"
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That one looks more like sarcasm to me. Poe's Law is in full effect this year, it's sometimes really hard to tell.
Re:Something isn't being said... (Score:4)
Take off your foil hat, not everything stated to you is a lie. It's becoming a real pain in the ass to design anything these days when you have year long lead times on everything from 3 cent semiconductors to $90 Lemo connectors.
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Take off your foil hat, not everything stated to you is a lie. It's becoming a real pain in the ass to design anything these days when you have year long lead times on everything from 3 cent semiconductors to $90 Lemo connectors.
Indeed!
I'd hate to be a Procurement Manager at any sort of Manufacturing right now, tech-oriented or not!
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you have year long lead times on everything from 3 cent semiconductors
Are you having problems with cheap components? Like I easily just bought a reel of octal flip-flops (74HCT574) which is 2,000 count and was given a delivery date of December 10th. Same goes for some of the logic gates (74HCT00, 74HCT02) roughly same delivery date for two reels each (4,000 each). Annoying for sure, but hardly "years long". So are you having years long wait times with your vendor? I'm not saying you aren't, just saying that I'm not, but I mean who knows, maybe I got lucky and that's righ
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power management integrated circuit which had lead time more than a year
Some less often used micro controllers have big lead times too
Oh yeah, that last one I can understand there being big lead time on that. There's the CP80C88 MPU that I know has a lead time of like "pray we get it next year". The nice thing is the MPU intro we switched over to the WDC65C816. It seems to be the hot one in hobby circles anyway so lucky all around. We go through about ten a year with our supply currently being ~40 of them on hand.
I could understand if someone didn't have the leisure like we do to just change up the MPU because the WDC65C816 is not a d
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I just deal with intro to digital circuits for a community class I teach. But I've not hit "years long" wait times for simple semiconductors. That might change, but I've not seen it yet.
Demand for those parts is not exactly booming. Try searching a part in higher demand - for example a STM32[F|H]7 microcontroller or above. Looks like there are a few in Europe but most models have a 9 month delay. Microchip has some comparable chips in stock but generally speaking, a 1 year wait time is not unusual at this point.
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for example a STM32[F|H]7 microcontroller or above
Okay. That makes a bit more sense then. Thank you for letting me know. I did ask my vendor about the part just out of curiosity. They gave me a wait time of sometime this time or later next year.
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When the same chip crunch hits Samsung or whatever maker you find acceptable.. will you hurl bricks at them too? Accuse them of not making a product with new innovations?
You know, after a while -- and the smartphone's had a while -- it's all been done.
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Someone is hiding part of the truth here. Many will not bite!
Let me see if I understand you, rumors (not confirmed by Apple) are that Apple will cut production due to the global chip shortage that is affecting almost every industry that relies on chips as reported by multiple companies like GM announcing production line shutdowns. But you do not buy that as Apple must be "hiding the truth!" that this shortage cannot be the reason that Apple is cutting production.
Considering that the iPhone 13 has not launched in all regions yet, you contend Apple must be cutting prod
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Yeah, if you already have an iPhone 12, there aren't really any compelling features in the iPhone 13 that are really going to make you want to upgrade.
If you have an iPhone 11, you might want to upgrade to get 5G, but then the 5G service in my suburban area is still pretty spotty. Even that can probably wait another year.
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Yeah, if you already have an iPhone 12, there aren't really any compelling features in the iPhone 13 that are really going to make you want to upgrade.
There was some statistics some time ago that about 2% of all iPhone users would upgrade after a year. Two percent. And I'd expect that these upgrades can be divided evenly into people who dropped their iPhone from some great height, and people with too much money burning a hole in their pocket.
In the UK, the top of the range iPhones are sold with a three year pocket, so they are supposed to last and not be replaced for at least three years. There will be plenty of iPhone 10 users upgrading, fewer iPhone
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Is 5G really compelling for anybody?
I just don't see it. Sure, you can get really fast internet on your phone in a few places, but LTE is plenty fast enough for anything I care about doing on my phone. Gigabit internet would occasionally be nice on my computer, but it just seems pointless on a phone.
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Moarrr speed is useless where I live because of data caps.
5G is about density. Here in Australia my apartment building has no signal loss with Telstra but drops out frequently with Optus 4G but only at specific times of the day, weird - which to me indicates there are too many simultaneous connections.
5G is supposed to fix that?
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Someone is hiding part of the truth here. Many will not bite!
Someone is too Conspiracy-Hungry. Many will not bite!
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The only thing keeping sales so high for Apple is 'free iPhone on us' lies from the carriers. How that can be allowed in advertising I have no idea. It is clear that the free phone is just another financing program since you can't just drop service at any time, and the monthly charges do not drop in price once the phone is actually paid for.
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How about "lack of demand" for the latest device? The iPhone 13 did not have [noticeable] fanfare at launch!
So... Apple fans fall over themselves to buy shit but also Apple doesn't sell anything. That sort of nonsense happens when you scramble to put a spin on the headline for internet points.
"unnamed sources" (Score:2)
Probably the same unnamed sources Bloomberg used in its story on supposedly infected Supermicro servers that was denied by literally everyone involved, including the companies who tested the products and even NSA...
But hey, whatever brings in the ad clicks!
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To your point, reports are emerging already that the alleged cutbacks don't actually exist, with various suppliers refuting Bloomberg's claims of cutbacks [macrumors.com].
Use more modern chips (Score:5, Interesting)
When we see stories about auto manufacturers and others not being able to get chips, a familiar refrain is, "They're using obsolete chips that no one wants to make anymore. They should modernize their designs!"
Now we see that Apple is experiencing shortages on its modernized design...
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"Now we see that Apple is experiencing shortages on its modernized design..."
Did you look at which components are claimed to be in short supply?
Sounds more like the norm (Score:2)
Apple always over-orders and cuts projections with suppliers in the second quarter after launch. Hard to really know if we are seeing that pattern or chip shortage.
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There are always *stories* that Apple over-orders and then cuts projections with suppliers in the second quarter after launch, and they are *never substantiated*. Realistically, their demand is front-loaded so their production should also be front-loaded.