Due To Chip Shortage, Apple Cuts IPhone 13 Sales

IPhone 13 products experienced a decline in production due to a shortage of chips. (photo: doc apple)

JAKARTA - Not long ago started selling the iPhone 13 globally since last September 15, now it is suspected that Apple is facing problems with the sales and production of its newest smartphone model.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Cupertino, United States (US)-based company is reportedly facing problems with the production of the iPhone 13 due to a chip shortage. Therefore, Apple cut production of the iPhone 13 by 10 million units, which was previously expected to produce around 90 million units of the newly launched mobile phone.

As a result of the chip shortage, Apple was reportedly unable to get enough chips from Broadcom and Texas Instruments to actually make this iPhone. The Apple iPhone 13 model uses a Broadcom AFEM-8215 front-end module and a Broadcom BCM59365 wireless power receiver, along with a display power management IC, array driver, LED flash driver, and dual repeater from Texas Instruments.

Most likely, this event will also have an impact on the upcoming MacBook Pro models that launch next week, and are powered by the Apple M1X chipset. Not only Apple, chip shortages have also thwarted the launch of the Google Pixel 5a 5G phones up to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Fan Edition (FE).

Still, Apple has enough traction to get close to its production goals. Even with this setback, the company is still in a stronger position than most of its competitors. With only 80 million iPhone 13 sales, Apple is still making quite a bit of profit, which means the company's pockets won't be hit too hard.

Meanwhile, associate director for CounterPoint Research, Jeff Fieldhack, who spoke to Reuters, Apple is simply over-ordering chips and reducing orders for its devices in order to claim large orders. The research firm sticks to its forecast of sales of 85 million to 90 million iPhone 13 units for the fourth quarter.

Adding to Fieldhack's comments, another associate director at Counterpoint Research, Jan Stryjak said, "We think Apple has the possibility of a fairly severe (component) shortage, and we hope they have some production alternatives for key components," Stryjak said as quoted by Digital Trends. , Thursday, October 14th.

Stryjak meant, for example, that Apple could quickly switch to another supplier when LG Display production was disrupted in Vietnam recently due to COVID-19. Overall, Stryjak believes their supply chain has more capacity to react to current shortages.

"For the main components, Apple may have secured supply until (first or second quarter) next year. Currently, we remain on our estimate (fourth quarter) of our iPhone 13 in the range (85 million to 90 million)," said Stryjak.