Vratislav Holub For a long time now, the technology world has been plagued by a global shortage of chips. For this simple reason, we are likely to see an increase in the price of all consumer electronics very soon, and unfortunately Apple products will not be an exception. In addition, practically since the beginning of this year, there have been reports that a number of new Apple products will be postponed for the same reason, as was the case with last year's iPhone 12 (but then the global covid-19 pandemic was to blame). However, the worst is probably yet to come – unpleasant price hikes.
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Amaya Toman At first glance, it may seem that this problem does not apply to Apple, since it has A-series and M-series chips practically under its thumb and is simply a big player for its supplier, TSMC. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that Apple products also contain a lot of chips from other manufacturers, for example, in the case of iPhones, these are 5G modems from Qualcomm and other components managing Wi-Fi and the like. However, even Apple's own chips will not avoid problems, as the costs of their production will likely increase.
TSMC is about to raise prices
Nevertheless, several reports appeared, according to which the price increase for now it will not touch the expected iPhone 13, which should be presented as early as next week. However, this is probably an inevitable matter. According to information from the Nikkei Asia portal, this will not be a short-term price increase, but a new standard. The fact that Apple closely cooperates in this direction with the Taiwanese giant TSMC, which is already at the top of the world in terms of chip production, also has its share in this. This company is then probably preparing for the biggest price increase in the last decade.
iPhone 13 Pro (render):
Gallery
Since TSMC is also the world's top company, it charges around 20% more than the competition for the production of chips for this reason alone. At the same time, the company constantly invests billions of dollars in development, thanks to which it is able to produce chips with a low production process and thus significantly leapfrog other players in the market in terms of performance.
Over time, of course, production costs are constantly increasing, which sooner or later affects the price itself. According to available information, TSMC invested $25 billion in the development of 5nm technology and now wants to leave up to $100 million for the development of even more powerful chips for the next three years. We could then find them in the next generations of iPhones, Macs and iPads. Since this giant will raise prices, it can be expected that Apple will demand higher amounts for the necessary components in the future.
When will the changes be reflected in the products?
Therefore, a relatively simple question is currently being asked - when will these changes be reflected in the prices of the products themselves? As mentioned above, the iPhone 13 (Pro) should not yet be affected by this problem. However, it is not entirely certain how it will be in the case of other products. In any case, opinions are still spreading among Apple fans that the 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pro could theoretically avoid price increases, for which the production of the expected M1X chips was ordered earlier. The MacBook Pro (2022) with an M2 chip could be in a similar situation.
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If we look at it from this point of view, it is obvious that the price increase will (probably) be reflected in the Apple products introduced next year, namely after the arrival of the aforementioned MacBook Air. There is, however, another considerably more friendly option in play – that is, that the price increase will not affect the apple growers in any way. Purely in theory, Apple could reduce costs somewhere else, thanks to which it would be able to provide devices at identical prices.
Well, it probably won't happen, but it would be nice if Apple took it in such a way that it wouldn't increase the price, because its products are simply used to get people to use their service, which they probably care more about lately anyway. This, no less, completely misses the fact that various countries are now at their throats and want to cut off those services.