Chip shortage Apple "abandoned car to protect the marshal"?

On February 7, the Beijing Business Daily reporter noted that in the major e-commerce platforms in the domestic market, iPads have appeared large-scale shortages, and the current reservation needs to wait for more than a month to get the goods. The global chip shortage is the main reason for this phenomenon, and it is reported that Apple has planned to sacrifice iPad production capacity and continue to put a small number of general-purpose chips on the iPhone 13 production line. From the perspective of performance, Apple's choice of "abandoning the car to protect the marshal" is also reasonable, after all, the iPhone contributes more than half of the revenue, but the iPad is also the company's star product, locking in the tablet industry's largest market share and the largest profit margin, so how Apple will balance the supply between the two has also attracted attention in the industry.

The iPad is out of stock

In apple products Jingdong self-operated flagship store, iPadmini, iPad and 11-inch iPad Pro are out of stock, and 12.9-inch iPad Pro and iPad Air can also be purchased. As for the specific arrival time, customer service told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that there is no notification information at present. In addition, in the official flagship store of Apple Tmall, these tablets that are out of stock show "shipped within 43 days after payment".

On Apple's official website, the Beijing Business Daily reporter chose the latest iPad mini, showing that if ordered on February 7, the expected delivery date is March 15-22, that is, the waiting time takes more than a month. The arrival time of the latest iPad is the same, there is no stock at present, and it is expected that the arrival time will take more than a month.

There is news from the supply chain that Apple has adjusted its strategy, comprehensively reducing the production capacity and raw material supply of the iPad, and leaving more capacity for the iPhone 13, which means that the shortage of iPads will be more serious in the future.

In the view of communications expert Ma Jihua, the global chip shortage phenomenon has not been alleviated, production capacity can not keep up, in this case Apple chose to protect the mobile phone is also reasonable, because the iPhone occupies most of Apple's revenue, the mobile phone market competition is more intense, the user waiting time is shorter, the profit margin is also larger, in order to market share and revenue, priority to ensure that the supply of mobile phones is normal.

In fact, this shortage of stock has been going on for some time. Before the Spring Festival, Apple announced the results of the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2022, iPad revenue was $7.248 billion, down 14% year-on-year, which is also the only category in all of Apple's hardware products that has experienced a decline in performance, and Apple's top pillar business is still the iPhone, with first-quarter revenue of $71.628 billion, an increase of about 9.2% year-on-year.

Apple CFO Luca Maestri said at the time that it was "very serious supply constraints" that led to a shortage of iPads, and that supply chain problems were mainly due to chip shortages in older models, resulting in a loss of more than $6 billion in the quarter.

"Scarce things are expensive", in the case of official product shortage, some third-party stores may take the opportunity to increase prices, Beijing Business Daily reporter found on Taobao that the price of iPads on some third-party stores is indeed one or two hundred yuan higher than the official price.

There is also news that Apple may also sell the iPad at a higher price in the future. In this regard, the Beijing Business Daily reporter interviewed Apple, as of press time, the other party did not give a reply.

It is difficult to solve in a short period of time

In fact, for Apple, while the iPhone business is more important, tablets also have their irreplaceability.

First of all, Apple has been in the "high position" of the tablet market, and other brands have not been able to pull Apple from the world's number one position for many years.

According to statistics released by market research agency IDC, global tablet shipments in 2021 will be 169 million units, an increase of 3.2% over 2020. Among them, Apple sold a total of 57.8 million iPads in 2021, with sales volume increasing by 8.4% year-on-year over 2020, and its market share increased to 34.2%, ranking first in the market; Samsung shipped a total of 30.9 million tabletS in 2021, an increase of 3.8% over 2020, with a market share of 18.3%, ranking second; ranked third is Lenovo, shipping a total of 17.7 million tablets in 2021, a substantial increase of 19.2% year-on-year, and a market share of 10.5% Amazon shipped 16.1 million units, an increase of 15.1% over the previous year, with a market share of 9.5%, ranking fourth in the world; while Huawei's tablet shipments in 2021 fell sharply by 32.1% due to the restrictions of the US ban, with shipments of 9.7 million units, and the market share also fell to 5.7%.

Secondly, Apple's profit advantage in the industry has been maintained for many years, and the iPad is no exception, with the highest profit margin in the tablet market.

Since the epidemic hit the world the year before, the supply of some semiconductors and chips has been interrupted by a series of black swan events such as some factory fires, winter storms, energy shortages and epidemic-related shutdowns, coupled with the sharp increase in demand for various semiconductor and chip products in various industries, chip shortages have become a global problem.

Ma Jihua told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that the chip shortage problem is difficult to solve in a short period of time. "On the one hand, the production capacity cannot keep up, and it has reached the peak of production capacity, and the chip factory does not dare to rush to increase production; on the other hand, in the case of the epidemic situation can not see the alleviation and the international political environment is uncertain, the degree of competition between manufacturers has intensified, exacerbating the contradictions between each other." It is expected that the future will usher in a major downturn in the chip industry and industrial restructuring. ”

However, Apple CEO Tim Cook is relatively optimistic. He said supply chain bottlenecks in the second quarter of fiscal 2022 (until the end of March) are improving, with most products experiencing supply chain bottlenecks, and the restrictions in the quarter are expected to be more moderate than in the first fiscal quarter. He also revealed that "the supply chain challenge in the first fiscal quarter is even more than in the fourth quarter (until the end of September), the biggest problem is the supply of mature process node chips, and the supply of advanced chips is OK."

Beijing Business Daily reporter Shi Feiyue