Apple’s iPhone 12 supply chain suggests ‘supercycle’

This is the hugest pile of iPhones you can imagine — think how many hours of work and development it represents.

Lots of news from across Apple’s supply chain as Digitimes publishes multiple reports that once again seem to confirm a huge spike in demand for the company’s new iPhone 12 range.

Apple’s smartphones are in the spotlight

The big takeaway being that Apple’s supply chain are being asked to increase output to address this demand, with customers and carriers placing the system under strain with big orders. You’re now looking at a 4-week wait in some places.

Both Foxconn and Pegatron as well as camera supplier Genius Electric Optical are recruiting thousands of workers and increasing overtime shifts as they attempt to meet phenomenal global demand.

iPhone Pro is star of the show

The stars of the show appears to be the camera-laden iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max models. These both use a component made by Japan’s Alps and Mitsumi, both firms now say they believe overall shipment of the new range will be higher than that of the iPhone 11.

Other firms in the iPhone supply chain currently benefiting from the sales surge include: Alps, Mitsumi, Audix, Win Semi, Visual Photonics Epitaxy, Broadcom and Skyworks. It’s significant that demand for the LiDAR scanners used only in iPhone 12 Pro Max is also high.

Makers of testing interfaces and optical components for 3D in iPads and iPhones are also seeing record revenue on strength of the new Apple products, Digitimes said.

Digitimes also claims Zhen Ding and Compeq now predict record revenues on strength of this demand. The two companies make PCBs for Apple’s iPhones.

Big money talks

The success is generating a degree of M&A activity. Bloomberg tells us CN innovations is working with advisors to find a buyer.

The company makes cover glass, touch panels, metal processing, metal injection molding and provides decorative and functional coating for Apple. The sale may yield as much as a billion dollars, the report claims.

Elsewhere in the wider industry, suppliers of components used in other 5G smartphones say they now expect the success of the iPhone 12 to raise craft across the industry.

Digitimes points out that the wider industry saw revenues crash during the pandemic, but stats expectation sales of 5G phones may reach as many as 500 million in 2021, up from 220 million forecast in 2020.

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