South Korean publication The Elec has reported that Jobs’ Mob froze production of its M2 series of SoCs in January and February due to “lower-than-anticipated” MacBook demand. Production reportedly resumed in March, but at just half, the rate compared to before.

Companies that supply materials and smaller components like thermal interface material, solder balls and the package lid all had to idle down upon Apple’s orders. To make matters worse, they could not even repurpose the M2 manufacturing line during the two-month break to accommodate other hardware production and were left sitting on their hands.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in early February that the company is “continuing to navigate a challenging environment” – we guess he should not be using Apple maps

Cook added that things might be a “little rough” in the short term but noted Apple's low share position in a large market and the competitive advantage that Apple silicon brings to the table.

The Tame Apple Press has done its best to spin the fact that no one is dumb enough to spend shedloads of cash on a PC which can be bought much cheaper from somewhere else.

One magazine pointed out that CPU shipments experienced their biggest decline in three decades during the usually lucrative holiday quarter. PC shipments slid 28 per cent during the same period, and some motherboard and hard drive vendors saw yearly shipments nearly cut in half.

Instead, the Tame Apple Press suggests we should be enthusiastic about Apple’s overpriced augmented reality / virtual reality specs which should arrive in June. Even if Apple employees are concerned that Cook is rushing the launch of the headset and that it will be an expensive flop.