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Even tech giants are hit by component shortage

Apple, Samsung, Foxconn … The number of major players in the high-tech industry who are sounding the alarm bells about the shortage of products is growing week by week, a sign of a financial crisis. magnitude.

The crisis spares no one. As the high-tech industry sinks week after week into a component shortage that may well last until next year, even the big names in the industry appear to be struggling to keep production going.

Based on an article from April 8, 2021 from Nikkei Asia, the last manufacturer hit by this crisis is none other than Apple. The brand would indeed encounter problems in producing enough MacBooks and iPads.

IPhone spared … for the moment

These two combined problems put Apple at a disadvantage. Regarding its computers, it would be difficulties to mount all the necessary parts on the printed circuits while the iPad would suffer from a lack of production of screens and components related to the screen.

Some component orders expected for the first half of the year have therefore been delayed and should arrive only in the second half of the year. The iPhones on the other hand are not yet affected by the shortage, but the supply of parts would be seriously drying up according to Nikkei.

Apple’s iPad Air 2020 // Source: Louise Audry for Numerama

Apple is not the only electronics giant to suffer from the current crisis. At the end of March, the CEO of the mobile division of Samsung confessed about the production of Galaxy Fold that the company had ” solved a lot of the problems [d’approvisionnement en écrans] », but that she could ” still not produce as many foldable phones as other smartphones ».

A generalized crisis

If we are to believe a recent Bloomberg article, the shortage of panels is due on the one hand to the very slow production of integrated circuits for screens (a basic part whose purpose is to transmit instructions on how to illuminate the screen) and on the other hand to industrial problems in the production of screen protector glass. Two major manufacturers are lagging behind because of accidents in their factories.

The problems faced by Apple and Samsung are symptomatic of a major crisis. Until now, the two digital behemoths had been relatively spared because of their importance in the market which allowed them to have priority on component orders. Apple, and more specifically Tim Cook, is also known for its mastery of the supply chain.

The shortage is now affecting the entire sector, from Foxconn to Apple via Asus. The only way to improve the situation would be to grow more factories, but such investments take a lot of time and money. The crisis is therefore not about to end.

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