Apple is a voracious consumer of NAND: The company uses about 20% of the world's production, said Yang, in its iPhone, iPad and iPod lines. Toshiba and Samsung are the major suppliers of NAND to Apple.

The timing of a potential supply squeeze could impact the next iPhone, Yang said, because that late April-early May timeframe would be about when Apple's contracted manufacturers would start cranking out new smartphones. That's assuming Apple does what it's done in three of the last four years, and launches a new iPhone in June.

"There could be a ripple effect, assuming a supply chain squeeze in May and product coming out in June or July," said Yang.

Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, was more pessimistic than Yang. "Every company will be impacted, no ifs ands or buts," said White of the disruption caused by Japan's multiple disasters.

"It may not just be semiconductors or [NAND] memory, but maybe in much smaller parts, like capacitors or materials used in printed circuit boards, which are in every consumer electronic product," White said.