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Glideslope

macrumors 604
Dec 7, 2007
7,887
5,326
The Adirondacks.
Not good. Hopefully this doesn’t eventually expand to include the new iPhones.

Still unknown. TSMC will give Apple priority given the copious amount of cash Apple Pay’s in its contracts to guarantee being first in line. So, I’m not concerned about A, U, S, or M series chips. Other silicon will be the issue.

I know Skyworks and Broadcom are really struggling with meeting their RF Chip targets. That could be a big issue for the iPhone.

Gotta admit though, TSMC is the God of Silicon.
 
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ruka.snow

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2017
1,886
5,182
Scotland
I suspect Apple might get into fabricating their own chips in the not too distant future. They don't seem like a company that would want their future to depend on such mortal issues as chip shortages.
 
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jz0309

Contributor
Sep 25, 2018
10,017
26,181
SoCal
Yes, but it's easier to get enough chips for a low volume product.
maybe, but you are defiantly going to put them into your highest margin product ... and, what gets more attention, negative attention, having to wait 4 weeks for an iPhone or an iPad?
 

Sasparilla

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2012
1,956
3,357
To add to this, saw this article where UMC (one of Taiwan's Fab company's) is going to spin up additional (new) 28nm (a old Fab process) capacity online (in 2 years) because the demand is out of wack for old processes. Normally this just wouldn't happen at this point.


Probably is worth repeating, if you were going to get an iMac or iPad Pro relatively soon then get your order in as soon as that opens (like the old days).

Guessing Apple has all the components on the iPhones pretty much guaranteed out (I know they actually help prepay the fab facilities and things like that) and is why that seems to be okay so far (we'll see for the 12s).

I can't believe I am going to type this.

The new iMac design is growing on me.

Was thinking the same darn thing. I want one. LOL
 
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isoft7

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2011
965
564
Of course they are expecting shortages, just when they’re about to be released hey hmmm. ?

Great marketing, panic buying due to low stock incoming. ?
Yep... 100%.

Apple dominates the supply chain, it isn't even close when you understand just how much impact they singularly have on everything else.

A big part of why there are continuous shortages on new gaming consoles, hardware, etc. is because Apple has so much influence in what is made and how it is shipped, they've monopolized these chains to a point of near full control.
 
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Sasparilla

macrumors 68000
Jul 6, 2012
1,956
3,357
Yes, but it's easier to get enough chips for a low volume product.

Only if there are surplus chips for such things - but as can be seen in all these comments, that is not the case - even for old processes everything is already 100% booked out.

Apple books out all iPhone components way in advance because they are in such monstrous quantities and literally help pay for the buildout of production facilities. That has paid off for the 12. Hopefully they have that lined up for the 12s, but we'll see.

Guessing Apple was using the go to the market for other chips in the much lower quantity Mac and iPad lines (like they always could in the past), because the numbers were so low - but like Dell and all these other companies they're running into a wall now.
 

matrix07

macrumors G3
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,891
I can't believe I am going to type this.

The new iMac design is growing on me.
It's really beautiful, isn't it?
imac-m1-blue-isolated-16x9-500k.png
 

Freeangel1

Suspended
Jan 13, 2020
1,191
1,753
I always always buy Refurbished APPLE products anyway.
Why not?
You still get the same 1 year warranty plus a cost savings.
 

qoop

macrumors 6502
Feb 4, 2021
440
424
THE UNITED KINGDOM
I suspect Apple might get into fabricating their own chips in the not too distant future. They don't seem like a company that would want their future to depend on such mortal issues as chip shortages.
They've done fitness, television and money lending — so why not? :)
 

pshufd

macrumors G3
Oct 24, 2013
9,935
14,433
New Hampshire
They've done fitness, television and money lending — so why not? :)

TSMC is building in the US. Intel wants to be a Fab to other countries in the US.

Infrastructure plan has money for chipmakers.

It would be a lot easier to just contract it out but imagine if Apple could have the kind of process lead that they enjoy in chip design.
 
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