Apple has decided to turn the table. The famous iPhone maker has made a major change in the production of its goose that lays the golden egg with a turnover of 200 billion dollars. According to information from Bloomberg, the apple brand will develop its own components from the end of 2024 in order to quickly dispense with incumbent suppliers. After ditching Intel for its MacBook processors, Apple will gradually cut ties with Broadcom and Qualcomm. The first provides the chip that allows the iPhone to connect via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The second produces, as is the case with Android models, cellular modems that communicate with 4G and 5G network antennas.
Apple is reportedly working on a component that combines both features. Marked by its industrial setbacks in China and by the shortage of components, the Cupertino company intends to design these critical components in-house as it did for the Apple Silicon M1 and M2 processors that equip its MacBooks and iPads. A strategy of independence with a domino effect on the whole electronics industry which depends a lot on the American multinational.
Apple uses almost 180 suppliers including the Korean LG or Samsung for its screens, Sony for the photographic sensors or the French-Italian STMicroelectronics for the 3D FaceID camera module or the eSIM.
The historic maker of iPhone processors, the Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC, has avoided the prospect of such a cold shower by relocating the production of these chips to Arizona. Two production units will emerge from the ground by 2026 to complete a project involving investments of 40 billion euros. Tim Cook’s company has also decided to diversify its production sites by transferring part of the final assembly of the iPhone to India and also to Vietnam.
