Reports from supply chain partners suggests that Apple cut off production of their current generation M2 SoC lineup in the months of January and February following significantly decreased demand for Mac computers containing the chips. The details trace back to partners in Outsourced Semiconductor Package Test, or OSAT, which is many different companies in the supply chain that contribute to assembly and testing of the final packaged SoC. OSAT partners claim they received zero M2 wafers from TSMC during both months, and that shipments have only resumed at half of the previous capacity in the month of March. The breadth of this shutdown touched many different suppliers, from the packaging facilities in Korea, to the solder ball suppliers in Taiwan, the TIM suppliers in Germany, and die underfill material suppliers from Japan. Many of these parts can be specific to the type of chip being produced, as M2 features a different packaging method to Apple's normal A-Series mobile SoCs; a lack of M2 silicon led to a full shutdown of this supply chain. An industry insider for Amcona states, "It is impossible to do other packaging work on the M2 line, the so-called 'Apple line' installed in Amcona chip packs."
In their Q1 2023 earnings conference Apple reported a sharp revenue drop in Mac sales from $10.85B down to $7.74B. "The PC market is facing a very challenging situation," stated Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, "I think we have an advantage with silicon but it will be very difficult in the short term." Apple began production of M2 well over a year ago when demand for Apple silicon equipped MacBooks was still sky high, and likely had large reserves of finished chips and machines stockpiled for the launch of M2 Pro and M2 Max in January. With demand dipping up to the launch of the new MacBook models it would certainly justify slowing down production, but outright halting it for multiple months suggests demand far undershot Apple's expectation.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
In their Q1 2023 earnings conference Apple reported a sharp revenue drop in Mac sales from $10.85B down to $7.74B. "The PC market is facing a very challenging situation," stated Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, "I think we have an advantage with silicon but it will be very difficult in the short term." Apple began production of M2 well over a year ago when demand for Apple silicon equipped MacBooks was still sky high, and likely had large reserves of finished chips and machines stockpiled for the launch of M2 Pro and M2 Max in January. With demand dipping up to the launch of the new MacBook models it would certainly justify slowing down production, but outright halting it for multiple months suggests demand far undershot Apple's expectation.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
