The reduced production capacity from these major semiconductor suppliers may have a far reaching impact on the computer industry over the next few months. Existing chipsets in the distribution channel and inventory held by ATI should help buffer the production distruption. Sept 21 There will be no major updates today but I will post an analysis of Apple's announced earnings shortfall tomorrow. I appreciate all the emails from readers who were concerned about my family. My parents who live in Taipei, Taiwan called yesterday and said that everything is well.
Situation is Taipei at least is under control.
There had been concerns that the transition of the Power Mac product line from G3 to G4 based machines may cause some near term inventory management issues in the channel. Apple said that it expects to end fiscal Q4 with backlogs of over 150,000 units of PowerMac G4s. The company also has a preorder of over 160,000 units of iBooks. However less than 50k units are expected to ship in time to count for this fiscal quarter. An earthquake estimated at 7.3 on the Richter Scale hit Taiwan just a few hours ago.