The chip shortage is hitting the iPhone 13, with Apple reportedly unable to get enough parts to hit its planned manufacturing goals, according to a report from Bloomberg. Apple had originally planned to produce 90 million iPhones in the final months of 2021, but it’s reportedly slashing that number by 10 million (or around 11 percent) due to supply issues with chips from Broadcom and Texas Instruments.
While the primary A15 Bionic SoC on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro is manufactured by TSMC, there are plenty of other chip-based components inside the phone that come from other sources. As iFixit’s thorough teardown of the iPhone 13 Pro’s logic board shows, Texas Instruments and Broadcom are responsible for several key components, including chips that handle display power management, Face ID’s laser array, USB connectivity, wireless power, and more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had already warned on the company’s Q3 earnings call that it might see chip supply issues, noting that “we’ll do everything we can to mitigate whatever set of circumstances we’re dealt.” But it seems that even with Apple’s best efforts and favorable relationships with suppliers, it just can’t get the physical components together that it needs to make enough iPhones.
It’s likely that Apple will eventually manage to get production up, but the slashed manufacturing estimate means that it’ll probably be even more difficult to find an (already tough to get ahold of) iPhone 13 in the coming months.
