{"id":426124,"date":"2026-05-01T01:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426124\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T01:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:09:14","slug":"as-tim-cook-steps-down-apple-hit-record-sales-but-a-chip-shortage-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426124\/","title":{"rendered":"As Tim Cook steps down, Apple hit record sales \u2014 but a chip shortage looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3abd73e6dbc8a2507fb39868574be661.jpeg\" alt=\"Apple CEO Tim Cook holds up a new iPhone 17 Pro\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"670\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA &#8211; SEPTEMBER 09: Apple CEO Tim Cook holds up a new iPhone 17 Pro during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2025 in Cupertino, California. Apple unveiled a new generation of iPhones and updated Apple Watches and AirPods during a special event at Apple headquarters. (Photo by Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images) | Image Credits:Justin Sullivan \/ Getty Images      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2026\/04\/apple-reports-second-quarter-results\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:reported;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;reported&quot;}\" class=\"link \">reported<\/a> a record quarter on Thursday. Yet <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/04\/21\/apple-tim-cook-ceo-15-year-legacy-takeaways-ios-silicon-china-trillion-ai\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:outgoing CEO Tim Cook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;outgoing CEO Tim Cook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">outgoing CEO Tim Cook<\/a> warned of some gathering storm clouds in the form of memory chip supply issues that could impact business in the near future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">\u201cToday Apple is proud to report our best March quarter ever, with revenue of $111.2 billion and double-digit growth across every geographic segment,\u201d Cook said during Thursday\u2019s earnings call. \u201ciPhone achieved a March quarter revenue record, fueled by such extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Less rosily, Cook relayed that Apple spent more on memory chips in March than in previous quarters, though the company\u2019s costs were offset by its ability to sell <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/26\/04\/30\/apples-memory-stockpile-is-holding-for-now-but-price-rises-still-loom\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:stockpiled inventory;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;stockpiled inventory&quot;}\" class=\"link \">stockpiled inventory<\/a>. But, he warned, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2026\/04\/30\/apple-memory-costs-significantly-higher\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the expectation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;the expectation&quot;}\" class=\"link \">the expectation<\/a> is \u201csignificantly higher memory costs\u201d\u00a0in June and beyond \u2014 the likes of which may \u201cdrive an increasing impact\u201d\u00a0on the business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Cook was referencing what has commonly been called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomsguide.com\/computing\/ram-price-crisis-2026-everything-you-need-to-know\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:RAMageddon;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;RAMageddon&quot;}\" class=\"link \">RAMageddon<\/a>,\u201d the trend of the AI industry guzzling up memory chips with such astonishing gusto it is spurring shortages. This is driving up the prices of hardware. Apple is primarily a hardware company, so that\u2019s obviously not great news for its core products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Most notably, the chip shortage has impacted the iPhone. Despite the strong sales figures touted by Apple on Thursday, it has <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/26\/04\/29\/john-ternus-first-major-challenge-is-dealing-with-quadrupled-iphone-memory-prices\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:previously been reported;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;previously been reported&quot;}\" class=\"link \">previously been reported<\/a> that RAM costs have quadrupled \u2014 impacting phone production costs and putting John Ternus, Apple\u2019s incoming CEO, in a less-than-enviable position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">One possible result may be that Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/apple-faces-iphone-pricing-challenge-supply-crunch-as-ai-demand-deepens-global-memory-chip-shortage-163018393.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:increases prices for the iPhone.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;increases prices for the iPhone.&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increases prices for the iPhone.<\/a> \u201cThere\u2019s just a little less flexibility in the supply chain at the moment for getting more parts,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/apple-sales-beat-expectations-powered-by-mac-iphone-hits-supply-constraints-2026-04-30\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cook told Reuters;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Cook told Reuters&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Cook told Reuters<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Ternus, who has served as Apple\u2019s senior vice president of hardware engineering, was on Thursday\u2019s earnings call and praised Cook. \u201cIn my view, Tim is one of the greatest business leaders of all time. Stepping into the role of CEO is an incredible honor, and it means a great deal to me to have Tim\u2019s trust and confidence,\u201d Ternus said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">He will obviously have his work cut out for him when he begins the job on September 1. But he will still have Cook\u2019s supply chain experience to lean on for a while. Cook will become executive chairman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA &#8211; SEPTEMBER 09: Apple CEO Tim Cook holds up a new iPhone 17 Pro during an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[936,80692,61,60,80,23579],"class_list":["post-426124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-apple-watches","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-tim-cook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}