iPhone 13 Line's Production Falls 20% Amid Component Shortage Woes

Production of the iPhone 13 lineup fell 20 per cent ahead of the holiday quarter due to the shortage of components and chips, thus, dampening Apple's bumper Christmas sale aspirations.

iPhone 13 Line's Production Falls 20%/Getty

New Delhi: Production of the iPhone 13 lineup fell 20 per cent ahead of the holiday quarter due to the shortage of components and chips, thus, dampening Apple's bumper Christmas sale aspirations. For the first time in the past 10 years, the assembling of iPhones and iPads was stopped for a short time due to the global supply chain crisis, a new report said on Wednesday.

Post the launch of iPhone 13 series in September, Apple is not able to meet production goals and also missing out on billions of dollars of revenue, a report by Nikkei Asia says. During September and October, production of the new iPhone 13 series declined 20 per cent short of previous plans even as the iPhone maker made necessary component arrangements for the latest flagship smartphone. 

Overall, despite reaccelerating production in November, Apple was still falling about 15 million units short of its aim to build 230 million iPhones in total this year, an ambitious goal set at the beginning of 2021, the Nikkei Aisa report added quoting sources.

This is also despite the fact that Apple apparently cut the production of the iPad by 50 per cent in the past three months in the wake of the supply crunch of chipsets globally. The iPhone maker is slashing production of the iPads to feed components to the newly launched iPhone 13, a report had said in November.

The Cupertino, California-based tech giant was set to make only about 83 million to 85 million units in the iPhone 13 lineup before the end of 2021 while falling short of its previous goal of up to 95 million units.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Apple informed its component makers that demand for the new iPhone 13 series is declining. The falling demand for this year's iPhone 13 series is due to buyers not opting for the high-to-get iPhone lineup, a report added.