The global chip shortage is starting to hit the smartphone industry
Summary
Semiconductors have been in short supply this year, due to a number of reasons including factory closures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and heightened demand for consumer electronics. "The automotive industry doesnt run at the same cadence as the smartphone business," Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC. The shortages arent in high-powered processors that Apple manufactures for its devices but chips for everyday functions like powering mobile displays and decoding audio, Cook said. "Although Apple is one of the big dogs that gets top priority from chipmakers, it is vulnerable to silicon shortages like everyone else," Glenn ODonnell, VP and research director at analyst firm Forrester, told CNBC. The South Korean electronics giant was hit with a month-long shutdown of its semiconductor fabrication plant in Austin, Texas, earlier this year after a snowstorm led to power outages.