Tim Cook estimates that these chip-related production delays to have cost the Cupertino company a total of six billion dollars. That’s also how much Zuckerberg lost over 6 hours of Facebook downtime last month, for the record.
Apple is still growing year-on-year
Despite this small hiccup, Apple continues to see significant growth year-on-year in every other category, with an annual revenue jump of 33% from 2020, cashing in at $366 billion in Q4 of 2021.
- After iPhones, Apple’s service business (all the software-based income) grew 26% over the past year, beating expectations as always.
- Apple’s iPads grew by 21% since last year, earning over one billion above Refinitiv projections, despite also being hit by the chip shortage.
- Apple’s Macs are seeing much slower growth, with only a 1.6% annual revenue increase (not including the MacBook Pros that were announced in October. Apple’s iPads grew
- Apple’s wearables and accessory sales grew collectively by 11%, not including products announced in October.
Here’s a table of how Apple measured up against Refinitiv estimates in the 2020-2021 fiscal year:
| Estimated Revenue | Actual Revenue | |
|---|---|---|
| EPS | $1.24 | $1.24 |
| Overall Revenue | $83.36 billion | $84.85 billion |
| iPhone | $38.87 billion | $41.51 billion |
| Services | $17.64 billion | $18.28 billion |
| Other Products | $8.79 billion | $9.33 billion |
| MacBooks | $9.18 billion | $9.23 billion |
| iPads | $7.23 billion | $8.25 billion |
| Gross Margin | 42.0% | 42.2% |
Tim Cook has said that Apple should continue to see “solid year-over-year revenue growth” in the current December quarter, without further hiccups. How is the company able to face the chip shortage so unwaveringly, seemingly feeling it far less than its competitors? The answer is simple: foresight and special treatment.
Apple is getting special treatment from foundries, keeping it afloat amidst the chip shortage
It’s not only that that’s keeping Apple afloat, either—TSMC is giving the company special treatment in other ways, too. As of January 2022, TSMC has announced a price hike of twenty percent for its chips, but Apple will be facing only a three-percent chip cost increase. Apple accounts for over 20% of TSMC’s revenue, which explains the preferential treatment, as unfair as it may seem for competitors.
The shortage also means a less powerful iPhone 14 SoC
Another, less direct, way in which Apple is being negatively impacted by the chip shortage involves the iPhone 14 SoC plans.
This means that we should prepare to receive a relatively smaller, maybe even marginal, improvement in energy efficiency and performance in the iPhone 14 next year, with the number of planned transistors within Apple’s native SoC likely reduced by a few billion by keeping the 4-nanometer technology.
If we do see the 3nm process node in the iPhone 15’s 2023 A16 chip, it still has a chance of being the first smartphone ever to feature 3nm technology.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
