On February 11, Bloomberg reported that Foxconn recently announced that Apple has been facing a shortage of parts for the past two years, which has improved significantly in the first quarter of this year, and it is expected that the overall supply constraints will be further eased in the second half of the year. However, power management chips are still in short supply.
As Apple's largest foundry in the world, Foxconn's statement has brought great confidence to the entire technology manufacturing industry. TSMC, the world's largest chip manufacturer, said that the chip supply problem in 2022 is still very tight, and the chip shortage has not been alleviated. To avoid last year's situation, suppliers such as Foxconn and TSMC still need to continue to expand production capacity and inventory.
It is understood that there was news that Apple was affected by the shortage of parts, resulting in iPhone sales falling short of expectations, bringing a loss of $6 billion to Apple. In October last year, the iPhone production line was also shut down for a few days, the first time in a decade that this situation has occurred.
In order to alleviate this situation as much as possible, Apple even reduced the output of the iPad, transferring some general parts to the iPhone 13 series production line. In addition, the production of older iPhones has also slowed down, and more resources have been invested in the iPhone 13 series. After this adjustment, the supply of the iPhone 13 series is significantly better, but the iPad products are out of stock.
Apple's official website shows that the current purchase of iPad 9, iPhone mini 6 and other products, you need to wait at least a month more than a delivery period, the longest even to wait 9 weeks. It should be known that these two products have been released for more than half a year, and they are not particularly hot products, and the supply situation is so tight that the situation of other products such as the MacBook may be even worse.
It is reported that Apple will hold a new product launch conference on March 8, bringing the iPhone SE 3, the new iPad Air and the entry-level MacBook Pro equipped with M2 chips. Among them, the iPhone SE 3 will be equipped with an A15 processor and support 5G networks, which should be the most anticipated by everyone. The iPad Air will also be upgraded to the latest A15 chip, and the appeal is not low.
Nowadays, the supply of Apple's hot products is relatively tight, if the price of the iPhone SE 3 and the new iPad Air is fragrant enough, it may become a new hit. I hope that Apple can quickly improve the supply situation, and the iPad ordered will be shipped quickly.