Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a contract chip maker that produces SoCs for Qualcomm, Nvidia, and others, has told Focus Taiwan that its 28nm foundry will fail to meet demand until 2013. The company manufactures Qualcomm's 28nm Snapdragon S4, one of the most sought-after SoCs in the market right now. Largely due to its integrated LTE, the S4 is the chip of choice for US variants of the HTC One X, One S, and the Samsung Galaxy S III.

TSMC says that the shortages will improve in the fourth quarter, and "market demand is likely to be satisfied in 2013." We already heard warnings that the Snapdragon S4 was facing shortages back in April, which led to the delay of the Asus Padfone. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs gave Reuters a more positive spin on the situation, telling the news organization that supply would be under control towards the year-end. "The goal is to get enough supply for everyone," said Jacobs. Unfortunately, it looks as though that won't happen for some time.