TSM Starts Production of A15 Bionic Chip For Apple iPhone 13: Report

It's possible Apple Inc AAPL can keep up with the launch schedule of its latest iPhone, after its previous iteration — the iPhone 12 — was officially delayed beyond the customer release month of September.

What Happened: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. TSM has started production of Apple's proprietary A15 bionic chip meant for the iPhone 13, according to McRumors, which quoted a report in Digitimes.

The iPhone 12 uses the A14 bionic chip, which is the first Apple processor made using the 5nm process. Its successor, the A15 bionic chip, will also be based on the same technology but will use an enhanced version of the process, the report said. This will bring about performance improvement and improved power efficacy, stated the report.

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The high-end variants of the iPhone 13, namely the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, will likely include an LTPO display, enabling a higher 120 hertz refresh rate.

The iPhone 13 will likely have a 1 terabyte storage option, double that of the current highest Pro storage capacity, and a number of enhancements, including Lidar, across all iPhone 13 models, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note in early March.

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Why It's Important: Given Apple derives the bulk of its revenues from the iPhone, the success of the upcoming model is very important for the company.

Ives said the initial Asia supply chain builds for iPhone 13 are in the 100-million-unit range compared to the initial iPhone 12 reads of 80 million. The analyst expects the 5G driven product cycle to extend into 2022, with support from a post-vaccine consumer "reopening environment."

At last check Wednesday morning, Apple shares are up 0.11% at $127.04.

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(Photo: iPhone 12 courtesy of Apple)