Apple Reportedly Cutting Demand For Its 3nm M3 Due To Sharp Decline In MacBook, iPad Sales As Work-From-Home Trend Ends

wccftech.com:

Apple has been reported on multiple occasions to officially unveil the M3 later this year, and it will be the company’s second 3nm chipset after the A17 Pro. Unfortunately, the company’s demand for its next-generation SoCs will be below expectations as shipments of its MacBook and iPad lineup continue to fall, with an analyst reporting that the Work-From-Home (WFH) trend has run its course.

In his Medium blog post, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo states that ASML, a Dutch-based firm that specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography machines, is said to cut EUV equipment shipment forecasts significantly next year by up to 30 percent. Kuo outlines one of the reasons for this negative impact below, stating that Apple’s demand for its upcoming 3nm M3 will be below previous estimations:

“Apple’s 3nm demand for 2024 would be below expectations. In 2023, Apple’s MacBook and iPad shipments declined significantly by approximately 30% and 22% to 17 million and 48 million units, respectively. The sharp decline is attributed to the end of work-from-home (WFH) demand and diminishing user appeal for the new specifications (Apple Silicon and Mini-LED). Looking ahead to 2024, Apple’s 3nm demand is negatively impacted by the lack of growth drivers for MacBook and iPad.”

It appears that the advantages that mini-LED and Apple Silicon have over competitors are still present, but consumers do not appear to be appealed by them anymore. It is likely that after the M1’s inception, Apple could not provide a massive performance and power-efficiency differentiation when it introduced the M2. However, industry watchers were expecting some incredible results from the A17 Pro because it is mass produced on TSMC’s so-called cutting-edge