Exactly. This shows the depth of the problem. Of all the suppliers, Apple probably has the most control of its supply chain.

I am curious what the situation looks like at the major Chinese manufacturers? Even though they werre probably early in buying up supplies being afraid of US sanctions.

The Chinese suppliers seem much more nimble with redesigning a product with different parts to make stuff work. Umidigi for example seems to bump model numbers almost every month on some product ranges, and the different models usually have different firmware images, suggesting they're switching components in or out.

I've seen no sign of a shortage of new phones for sale online, so it doesn't seem the shortage is hitting too hard.

If they really were the highest priority client, the fab would run exclusively for them, right?

They have done in the past. I’m pretty sure Apple helped fund TSMCs 5nm process in exchange for exclusive access to the process for a while.

But we don’t know which chips are in s as shortage, it could be memory chips, display controllers, battery management chips. Plenty of ICs in an iPhone to pick from, and you can’t build an iPhone without them all.