Image via Apple
Ahead of Apple’s Q1FY2022 earnings call, we all sort of assumed that Apple had sacrificed iPad sales to make sure it had enough iPhones to go around. While Apple CEO Tim Cook did say that there may have been a tiny bit of that happening, the real reason iPad sales slipped last quarter was because of component shortages - specifically not enough legacy nodes. The Japanese business site Nikkei seems to think Cook either doesn’t know what he’s talking about, or is lying. At least, that’s the impression one gets when one sees the headline, “iPad deliveries remain squeezed as Apple prioritizes iPhones.”
What’s funny is, they even quote a guy who indicates it is the component shortage that’s slowing iPad shipments. Wayne Lam, senior director of research at CCS Insight, says:
Since iPads have greater than 8-inch displays, they need a lot of display drivers and unfortunately display drivers are produced at legacy process nodes -- which is at the core of the semiconductor supply crunch…
Also, iPads use LCD displays, while Apple Watch and iPhone use OLED. And guess what LCD displays need. Quoting Lam again:
LCD display drivers are heavily reliant on legacy silicon process nodes to produce… OLED displays tend to require less and use more advanced silicon processors.
Well, he either doesn’t know what he’s talking about or is lying, too. To cope with supply constraints last quarter, Nikkei says Apple:
…began reallocating some shared components from the iPad line to the new iPhone 13 series to ensure smooth production of its flagship product ahead of the holiday season.
Well, if they couldn’t get the parts to produce iPads, why wouldn’t they send some shared… You know what? Never mind. It’s still taking quite a while to get new iPads in many cases. Apple has said it expects that to improve this quarter. For its part, Nikkei does note slight improvement since the beginning of the year.
