The risk of iPhone 18 Pro being out of stock as soon as it goes on sale
(Dan Tri) - Apple and its supply chain partners are racing to ensure enough mobile DRAM to serve the production of iPhone 18 Pro and its first folding screen iPhone.
In a latest report, analyst Tim Culpan said the memory supply shortage may prevent Apple from reaching the desired iPhone 18 Pro inventory level.
The production process of iPhone 18 Pro is facing difficulties due to lack of DRAM supply (Photo: MacRumors).
"This year, the new iPhone will use the A20 Pro processor. This is the first chip produced on TSMC's N2 process, which began mass production early this year. After that, the A20 Pro chip will be packaged with DRAM according to TSMC's process.
A20 Pro chip production is progressing well with stable output. However, TSMC has a backlog of about $1 billion in chips due to having to wait for DRAM supplies, before they can be packaged and moved to the next step," Culpan wrote.
This bottleneck risks spreading to the final stages of iPhone production. The main circuit board assembly and finishing are mainly done by Foxconn and BYD in China. Delays in the delivery of packaged processors may slow down production schedules.
Apple buys memory chips from SK Hynix and Samsung. However, the company depends on Micron for most of its supply. Sources from the supply chain said that iPhone 18 Pro inventory may quickly run out during the initial sale period.
This scarcity also reflects the increasingly serious memory shortage in the context of the global memory supply chain under pressure from a wave of investment in AI infrastructure.
iPhone 18 Pro Max model (Photo: NotebookCheck).
During a meeting at the end of July, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that component supply constraints could greatly affect iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. Cook believes that flexibility in the supply chain is gradually becoming limited.
The CEO said that Apple has had to pay more money for memory chip components in recent times. It is expected that this situation will continue for a long time. The company will try to offset some of the increased costs, but the memory chip issue remains unresolved.