If you’re planning on upgrading to an iPhone 13 this year, or giving one as a gift this Christmas, it’s probably best not to wait too much longer to buy one of the four available models.
As Bloomberg reports, it’s thought Apple will be forced to lower its production target for the iPhone 13 by 10 million units this year. Over the last three months of 2021, Apple was expecting 90 million iPhone 13 handsets to be produced, but now 80 million looks more likely.
If you hadn’t guessed already, the problem is one of component supply. Nobody is immune to the ongoing global chip shortages, and in Apple’s case the shortage stems from Broadcom and Texas Instruments. Both manufacturers are struggling to produce enough components to keep up with demand according to people “with knowledge of the matter.”
80 million iPhones is still plenty of stock for Apple to sell through, but losing out on another 10 million potential sales this year will certainly be felt. Apple has very strong buying power within the industry, so if it does suffer such a massive shortfall we can only imagine what other companies are facing as we edge closer to 2022.
AMD CEO Lisa Su believes the chip shortages will ease next year, where as Michael Dell believes they will last for years. Take care of your devices everyone, they made need to serve you for a bit longer than expected before the next upgrade.
