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| Apple cuts iPad production in favor of iPhone 13 |
Apple has significantly reduced production of the iPad and allocated more components to the iPhone 13, which indicates that the global chip supply crisis has affected the company more than expected.
In the past two months, Eyad's production has fallen by 50% from the company's original plan. Some parts of the old iPhone also carried over to the iPhone 13.
The iPad and iPhone models share many components, including the main and peripheral chips. In some cases, this allows companies to move supplies between different devices.
The company is prioritizing the iPhone 13 as it expects smartphone demand to be stronger than iPad demand as the western market begins to shake off the coronavirus pandemic. Europe and America account for 66% of the company's sales.
Sales of the new iPhone also peaked a few months after its launch. Therefore, ensuring a smooth iPhone 13 production process is currently a top priority.
However, with the rise of distance work and learning during the pandemic, the demand for the iPad is also strong. Last year, worldwide iPad shipments increased annually by 6.7% to 53.2 million units.
In doing so, Apple gained a global market share of 32.5%, far exceeding Samsung's share of 19.1%.
In the first nine months of this year, 40.3 million iPads were shipped, an increase of 17.83% over the previous year.
Apple cuts production due to loss of potato chips
It's worth noting that this isn't the first time that Apple has put an iPhone on top of an iPad. In 2020, the company distributed iPad parts to its first 5G mobile phone, the iPhone 12, to protect its most popular products from supply chain restrictions during the pandemic.
This time, buyers have to wait a long time to buy a new iPad. Anyone who orders a 256GB iPad at the end of October will have to wait until December 15 to ship it to America or Europe.
For those who order the latest iPad mini, the delivery time is around the first week of December. And Chinese consumers, the company's third largest market, will have to wait up to six weeks to get a new iPad.