Apple is generally secretive about the components it uses for the products, especially iPhones. There is also the fact that Apple Inc. manufactures some components on its own. According to the latest reports, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max contain components built by Toshiba and Micron Technology. This was revealed by iFixit, a company that conducts tear-down of popular devices. While the iFixit teardown revealed much more details, the interesting facts include the omission of parts from Samsung and Qualcomm — as things were expected. As said earlier, Apple is strict that it does not reveal component details while preventing suppliers from providing the data either.
As of now, device teardowns are the only way to know the components being used to build iPhones as well as other Apple products. iFixit is a company that has been conducting tear-downs for a period of time, and the teardowns were why people understand that Apple is using products from different manufacturers. This time, however, several disputes had prevented Apple from using the products from Samsung and Qualcomm — two of the popular suppliers. In the case of Qualcomm, Apple and the chip-maker company had a series of patent-based infringement issues, which was the reason why Apple hasn’t got the Qualcomm chips.
According to experts, however, the teardowns can be considered the end of understanding all these. Apple, as a company, is known for the reliance on multiple suppliers. That is, different Apple iPhone devices might contain parts from different manufacturers. It means that the single iFixit teardown does not prove the use of Toshiba and Micron components in the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The teardown report says Apple has used NAND and DRAM chips from Micron and Toshiba. However, Intel modems, which should have been probably the first choice as Qualcomm replacement, were not present in the device.
