Chip shortage cramps iPhone13 production

Bengaluru: Consumers in India may not be able to book Apple's just launched iPhone13 phone during the upcoming popular big day sales of e-commerce giants with an immediate delivery commitment as chip shortage roils the production. The iPhone 13 series has four models with multiple variants within a price range of Rs69,900 to Rs1,79,900.

Currently, the latest model iPhone13 are sold out in stores and online marketplaces. Even the company-owned outlets are showing delivery delay of one to five weeks.

The shortage of chips is affecting delivery of various consumer good and electronics industries including automobile, cellular phones, smart watches, high-end consumer durables articles among others. This shortage is likely to persist till the first half of the next year, more chip production capacity gets operational across the world. Due to the pandemic, there was a huge surge in demand for chips as computers, cell phones and other such devices saw a demand spike.

This spike led to excessive demand for chips, in which supply couldn't keep pace with demand. Globally, most automotive firms, mobile phone manufacturing companies and many other user industries are delaying product delivery and new launches amidst such supply constraints.

To bridge this gap, many countries are ramping up chip manufacturing capacity with the United States leading the way. Against this backdrop, consumers in India will have to wait for more time to get the latest Apple's iPhone series. Not only Apple, many leading phone manufacturers including Samsung are also facing delay in making timely delivery of popular models. Notably, mobile phones contribute the largest volume of sales to most etailers in India. In 2020, Apple shipped around 3.2 million iPhones to India, which was the highest ever for the company. Usually, the company sells more than half of its annual sales during the festive season.