On April 13, Broadcom vice president of sales Nilesh Mistry warned clients that the lead time for ordering parts has now grown to at least 26 weeks due to breakdowns in the supply chain. At Broadcom, which makes components for Apple iPhones, the typical lead time for deliveries had been two-to-three-months. Mistry explained that lockdowns in factories in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines were “closing or severely restricting business operations.” Anything ordered now won’t arrive until the holiday season. Continue reading Broadcom Warns of Slowdown Due to Supply Chain Troubles

Huawei Technologies unveiled its anticipated in-house software it hopes will replace Google’s Android. The new Harmony operating system (formerly code-named “Ark,” Chinese name “Hongmeng”) is evidence of Huawei’s move towards self-reliance in the face of U.S. sanctions against the sale of U.S. components to the company and the escalating trade war between the two countries. In fact, Huawei’s new emphasis on autonomy is similar to that of Apple, which bought Intel’s modem manufacturing unit and also attempts to bulletproof its pipeline in an uncertain economic environment. Continue reading How Apple and Huawei Compare in Manufacturing Devices

Samsung Electronics, which currently dominates the market for memory chips used in smartphones and servers (among other devices), is now set on developing what they call “logic chips,” or advanced chip processors. The company stated its plans to invest 133 trillion won ($116 billion) over the next 10 years, putting it on a path to compete with Intel and Qualcomm. In doing so, Samsung is expected to create 15,000 jobs in production and research. The company already designed its own microprocessors for its Galaxy phones. Continue reading Samsung Invests in Logic Chips to Rival Intel and Qualcomm