Friday, February 21st 2025
TSMC Set to Benefit from Estimated 22 Million Apple iPhone 16e Unit Sales
On Wednesday (February 19), Apple announced the upcoming launch of its "budget-friendly" iPhone 16e smartphone model. The Cupertino, California-based company has refreshed its entry level product tier—starting at $599—with modernized internals. Apple's new design houses an A18 chipset, as well as their much-discussed debut modem design. The C1 is a custom 5G part; fully developed in-house. Previously, modern iPhone product ranges have been fitted with Qualcomm 5G modems. As expected, Apple contracted with TSMC for the production of A18 and C1 silicon—the A-type SoC is based on a 3 nm process node (TSMC N3E). Their proprietary modem baseband design utilizes 4 mm, while the receiver uses a 7 nm process—according to insiders.
Taiwan's Commercial Times reckons that TSMC will be the "biggest beneficiary" from the aforementioned agreement with Apple. Ctee TW's latest report cites industry analysis; soothsayers estimate annual shipments reaching roughly 22 million units annually. Additional whispers suggest that the C1 modem will turn up in non-iPhone devices—namely next-gen Watches and iPads, by next year. The report also mentions that upcoming Mac products are slated for C1 upgrades. Further leaks have linked project "Ganymede" to a "C2" custom 5G modem design—inside sources believe that a 3 nm TSMC process is on the cards. Another codename—"Prometheus"—was leaked by insiders; possibly referencing a future "C3" model.
Sources:
Commercial Times Taiwan, Wccftech, Patently Apple
Taiwan's Commercial Times reckons that TSMC will be the "biggest beneficiary" from the aforementioned agreement with Apple. Ctee TW's latest report cites industry analysis; soothsayers estimate annual shipments reaching roughly 22 million units annually. Additional whispers suggest that the C1 modem will turn up in non-iPhone devices—namely next-gen Watches and iPads, by next year. The report also mentions that upcoming Mac products are slated for C1 upgrades. Further leaks have linked project "Ganymede" to a "C2" custom 5G modem design—inside sources believe that a 3 nm TSMC process is on the cards. Another codename—"Prometheus"—was leaked by insiders; possibly referencing a future "C3" model.
18 Comments on TSMC Set to Benefit from Estimated 22 Million Apple iPhone 16e Unit Sales
Wish them lack…(hopefully QCOM will make sure to ask for right fees as in Apple fashion)
The moral of the story: don't pick teams. Be open minded enough to see which way the winds are blowing. Sometimes it blows in your direction. Sometimes not.
What other phone offers this? The only one that, brand new, offers this level is Google's Pixel lineup, and the 8a is the true competition to the 16e. Everything else that is close costs at least $200 more, usually closer to $400 more new, with shorter security update lifetimes and none of the support network that apple stores allow.
In fact, Intel's most advanced 14nm nodes were closer to TSMCs N10 than to TSMC N12, being about 20% more dense than N12. They should have renamed them 12nm or 10nm, instead of just adding ++ to the end. That was a major marketing flub, they didn't realize until far too late.
If Intel had really put effort into an IFS node at that time, they would have undoubtedly crushed TSMC.
And Intel's "10nm" node wound up being *twice* the density of TSMCs 10FF node. That's more than a full node shrink and was comparable to TSMC N7. In fact the original N7 was about 10% *less* dense than Intel's 10nm. It wasn't until N7+ and N6 that TSMCs node beat Intel 10nm.
Which is why Intel re-named its nodes. But the damage was done, people to this day conflate TSMCs node names with nm as you just did.
Upon a time you just needed one in a room now how tom dick and harry is addicted and suckered in to this BS that we need this BS.
For that price I rather get new gpu or go buy consoles
the new SE and now E went from $399 ~ $499 to now $599. people are crazy paying this prices let alone $1000+ for is basically personal gps for these companies to track you