The global chip shortage has not spared any company. Samsung has had to make some sacrifices this year because of it. The company ditched the Galaxy Note lineup and hasn't even launched the Galaxy S21 FE yet.
Samsung did all this just so it could have enough chips for its foldable smartphones. Apple might have been happy about Samsung not being able to launch some of its most sought after models. However, it now has some chip troubles of its own.
The chip shortage has caught up with Apple
Securing enough mobile processors has been a problem for Samsung. That's the reason it gave for not launching a new Galaxy Note lineup this year. Now there's high demand for the new foldable smartphones.
Samsung has delayed the Galaxy S21 FE so that it can use all available chips for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3. Despite doing that the company is still not being able to meet the demand for the foldables due to the shortage.
Since Apple reserved production capacity at TSMC far in advance, it hasn't faced any issues with the availability of its mobile processors. However, the company is now finding it hard to secure other chip components.
Bloomberg reports that Apple has cut its production target for the iPhone 13. The company had planned to make 90 million iPhones in Q4 2021. That number has now been cut by 10 million units as chip supplies from Broadcom and Texas Instruments are under pressure.
The chips that Apple buys from Broadcom and Texas Instruments handle various key functions such as display power management, USB connectivity, wireless power and even Face ID's laser array. So even if it has enough A15 Bionic SoCs, if it doesn't get enough of the other chips it can't make as many iPhones as it wanted to.
Apple is far from the only company that's having to reduce its planned production numbers due to the chip shortage. It just goes to show that in these uncertain times, you can't really be too happy about your competitor's misfortunes.
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