Could Apple’s iPhones be delayed or be available in limited quantities at the start? That usually seems to be the case, and unfortunately that might not change with 2018’s iPhones because in a statement released by TSMC, it appears that the company’s production had to be temporarily halted due to the discovery of a computer virus.For those unfamiliar, TSMC is said to be the exclusive provider of Apple’s A-series chipsets for 2018. While TSMC does not specifically mention Apple or the iPhone (or iPads for that matter), we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple’s iPhones could be affected by this, although exactly how big of an impact remains to be seen.
According to the company, “TSMC expects this incident to cause shipment delays and additional costs. We estimate the impact to third quarter revenue to be about three percent, and impact to gross margin to be about one percentage point. The Company is confident shipments delayed in third quarter will be recovered in the fourth quarter 2018, and maintains its forecast of high single-digit revenue growth for 2018 in U.S. dollars given on July 19, 2018.”
Apple is expected to officially announce their new iPhones on the 11th or 12th of September this year, which means that its release is most likely pegged for the later part of the month. This means that if you wanted to get your hands on it, you might want to move fast to get the first batch.