Apple’s latest iPhone 15 series appears to be in high demand, particularly the ‘Pro’ models, which are powered by the A17 Pro. Unfortunately, their shipments may not help the company’s supply chain partner, TSMC, recover from a revenue decline this year, according to the latest report, with weak demand across all channels said to eat into the semiconductor giant’s yearly revenue.
Apple is also said to have cut orders for its 3nm M3 due to weak iPad and Mac sales, reducing TSMC’s revenue further
Total chip orders for the A17 Pro were not mentioned in the paywalled report published by DigiTimes, but the slowing global market will cause TSMC to post a 10 percent revenue decline this year. Even if Apple placed sufficient A16 Bionic and A17 Pro orders with TSMC due to the increased iPhone 15 demand, its other hardware businesses, such as the Mac and iPad, continue to struggle. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, M3 orders have been cut by Apple as customer demand for the iPad and Mac continues to dwindle.
It also does not help that other SoC makers, such as Qualcomm, have been struggling with sales, and as we head into 2024, things are not expected to improve for the San Diego firm. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will not be exclusively used to power Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S24 series, as the Korean giant has just announced the Exynos 2400 that will be mass produced on its 4nm LPP+ process.
Huawei is one other reason why TSMC is facing a revenue decline, and things might get even more dire in 2024. A previous estimation claims that Qualcomm will lose up to 60 million chip orders next year, and with the Kirin 9000S already found in several of the Chinese phone maker’s flagships, Qualcomm is feeling the pressure of being unable to sell both chipsets and 5G modems to a former customer.
This resurgence is also expected to harm Apple, with an earlier report stating that the Cupertino giant will face several challenges heading into next year, with Huawei being one of them. With the Mate 60 Pro gaining immense traction in China, Apple’s loss in market share in the region will adversely affect TSMC’s revenue for the remainder of 2023. The Taiwanese manufacturer cannot offset this decline by letting Huawei leverage its technology and mass produce cutting-edge Kirin chipsets due to the U.S. trade sanctions, so it will have little choice but to bear a loss.
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