Apple says it will have fewer iPhones, iPads, and Macs to sell this fall than demand calls for.
On Apple's earnings call for the third quarter of 2026, CEO Tim Cook said supply constraints will hit revenue much harder in the September quarter, across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. He framed it as a demand-forecast problem, not a supplier failure: iPhone and Mac sales are running "remarkably better" than Apple projected, and the company can't secure enough capacity on the advanced chip nodes its products depend on. Cook also said memory costs rose from the March quarter to the June quarter and will rise again in September. Carry-in inventory and savings on other components will cushion some of that increase, he said, but the benefit fades beyond this quarter.
For a company famous for supply-chain precision, admitting it under-forecast demand for its own hit products is an unusual stumble - and a fairly good problem to have, since it means people want the hardware. The timing is awkward though: Apple is set to launch the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and its first foldable iPhone in September, exactly when supply gaps turn into lost sales and longer shipping waits.
Memory prices are climbing across the industry, not just for Apple, so this shortage looks less like a one-quarter hiccup than an early sign of what every device maker will be pricing around this fall.