TSMC got the sole rights to manufacture the iPhone 7 chip and it was big news for them. Q1 productions already began and TSMC was up for the challenge. But a massive earthquake shook the country, earlier in February and it claimed over 100 lives. The southern region was mostly affected as people got trapped in their apartments and died eventually. The magnitude of this quake was 6.4 and it had a devastating effect on the lives of people. TSMC is facing huge problems but, they haven’t said anything clearly about the matter. It is almost sure that the production will drop and the delay is inevitable.

The chips of iPhone 6s were produced by TSMC and Samsung, but recently Apple finalized a new deal with TSMC for their new iPhone. Manufacturing facilities suffered significant damages and at first TSMC failed to understand the damage scenario. The company assumed that within a couple of days, most of their production capacity would be restored, but they were wrong. They estimated that the earthquake damage will account to a negligible 1% loss, as far as 2016 production is concerned. But some of their units are hit badly and all their previous assessments are valueless now. How TSMC adjusts with this emergency situation, is a thing which remains to be seen.

But they are still optimistic about reaching their financial goals in Q1 and the chip making company believes; the impacts are not major. Apple should have gone with two chip manufacturers for the iPhone 7 as it is always beneficial. It is true that the benchmark tests favoured TSMC, but some other aspects should have been considered as well. The difference between the two manufacturers was a mere 2‐3% and taking a decision based on that can prove risky at times. TSMC chips boosted the battery lives of the model sets and there were no heating issues in them.