Mass production of Apple’s high-end OLED iPhone 8 is reportedly running a couple of months behind schedule, claims reputable KGI Securities Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo blames production problems related to the phone’s “significant hardware upgrades” for the delay, which is likely to cause mass production to be pushed back to October/November, instead of the usual August/September timeframe.
After the handset launches, Kuo thinks that supply of the iPhone 8 is likely to be limited “for a while,” although it’s not clear how long this short supply might last — or whether it will affect all colors of the new premium handset, or just the most popular color options or storage models.
Kuo says that supplies of the regular iPhone 7s, which will include only minor hardware upgrades, won’t suffer similar delays.
Smaller demand
In terms of demand, Kuo isn’t too concerned about the late running of the iPhone 8. He suggests that most people will be willing to wait for it to be available, even if this means holding off their upgrade cycle until early next year. (Although this would certainly be bad news for Apple’s always-good holiday season.)
However, he’s less optimistic about the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus models, which will mark the fourth year in a row Apple will issue new handsets with a very similar form factor and feature set.
Because of the arrival of full-screen smartphones from companies like Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi — making the older iPhone look dated by comparison — he’s modified his sales projections. Instead of the 110 million iPhone units he expected Apple to sell in the second half of 2017, Kuo now thinks Apple will sell “just” 80-90 million units.
Are you excited about the new iPhone models? Check out our recent article running down all the features we’re expecting to see here. And leave us a comment in the box below!
Source: 9to5Mac
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “iPhone 8 mass production is two months behind schedule”
Same story every time a new iPhone comes out.
Absolute and total hogwash, repeated ad nauseam on every single new Apple product. Would someone please sue the crap out of KGI Securities Apple IP property thief Ming-Chi Kuo? It’s all just lies for the sole benefit of KGI bean counters.
Also, I really wish corporate media would stop saying that, on every release of anything from Apple that is was ‘widely criticised’ etc… This is not news! What would be news is if the Apple haters didn’t pile on and denounce every single Apple release, only to COPY IT later and proclaim the rip off as if it were something new when Apple had it out years ago. BTW, OLED screen is a total yawner, but if Apple has it, then they have finally figurred out how to get decent color reproduction and reliability out of it, unlike Samsung.