Sources: Apple will likely cut its projected iPhone 13 production targets for 2021 by 10M units, due to shortage of Broadcom and Texas Instruments parts
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had already revised iPhone plans earlier in 2021, including broad order reductions across the iPhone line and a steep cut to iPhone 12 mini orders. The iPhone 13 revision shifts the immediate constraint from product-level ordering to the availability of parts from Broadcom and Texas Instruments.
Later supplier guidance indicates Apple may not recover the lost 2021 volume in 2022, making the reported reduction more consequential than a short production rescheduling.
First-order effects
- Apple lowers its 2021 iPhone 13 production target by 10 million units, while Broadcom and Texas Instruments face reduced near-term component shipments tied to those unbuilt phones.
- Apple's iPhone supply plan becomes constrained by specific bill-of-materials shortages rather than its planned production volume.
Second-order effects
- Suppliers planning around Apple's original target must adjust capacity and inventory expectations; the later indication that the gap may not be recovered in 2022 extends that planning problem beyond the year-end period.
- Apple's earlier iPhone order changes and the new component shortage concentrate bargaining and allocation pressure on the parts that gate final-device output.
Third-order effects
- The episode illustrates downstream bill-of-materials transmission: a shortage at a component supplier can set the output ceiling for a finished-device maker despite that maker's scale.
- If such constraints persist, handset production planning will increasingly depend on securing capacity for individual critical components, not only on assembling final products.
The trend: Semiconductor capacity lag is turning individual component availability into a binding constraint on major consumer-electronics production plans.