Apple will manufacture just 20 million iPhone X handsets this year, according to sources. That’s half the number it originally planned to produce in 2017, and it’s all due to “technical issues” surrounding Face ID components.
There are going to be a lot of unhappy Apple fans come November 3. Yet another report from a reliable analyst has reiterated that production issues are affecting early iPhone X supply. Apple will have just 3 million units available at launch.
iPhone X supply is still being plagued by manufacturing issues.
Some analysts have slashed supply forecasts even further due to the problems faced by TrueDepth sensor makers. It looks like Apple’s hottest handset will be even harder to obtain than originally anticipated.
iPhone X might be insanely expensive, but that won’t prevent it from becoming the best-selling Apple smartphone to date. What might scupper sales is incredibly short supply.
According to one reliable analyst, iPhone X production, as it currently stands, has no hope of keeping up with early demand.
Recent reports have claimed that Apple’s had some difficulties manufacturing the new iPad mini with Retina display, which is why it didn’t shout too loudly about its launch earlier this month, and why the device hasn’t been too easy to get hold of in many markets.
But now that the initial supply constraints are easing, the Cupertino company will produce 4 million units during November alone, according to supply chain sources in Taiwan.
Sharp has this morning announced a ¥10.4 billion ($112 million) investment from Samsung that will provide the latter with a 3% stake in the company. It makes Samsung the biggest individual shareholder in the Japanese display maker, and secures its access to Sharp’s LCD panel supplies.
The investment comes at a time when Sharp has been struggling. The company received a $4.4 billion bailout from the banks in October 2012, and its iPad display orders from Apple were recently cut as consumer demand shifted to the smaller iPad mini, which Sharp is not involved with.
Apple stock took a battering this week when it was reported that the iPhone 5 wasn’t selling as well as the Cupertino company had expected it to, and it appears analysts aren’t going to let it recover just yet. JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz is now reporting that iPad sales won’t meet expectations due to supply constraints during the fourth quarter of 2012.
As you may have noticed, Apple announced the iPad mini today. Soon after, of course, came the analyst perspective – if there’s a strong demand for the iPad mini device, we may see serious supply issues. This has been rumored already in regards to the aluminum back for the new iPad mini, but this is the first report that a shortage of display units may also have a role to play.
“We’re now starting to see the issues that [Apple] is having with Samsung,” said Richard Shim, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, in an interview with CNET.
Samsung is not supplying displays for iPad mini, according to the analyst, which leaves only two suppliers to make the smaller iPad mini for Apple.
When Apple began selling the iPhone 5 on September 21, it quickly became the fastest-selling iPhone to date, with five million units sold in the first three days. However, sales have started to slow down since then, and they’ve begun falling short of analyst expectations.
It’s not that customers aren’t buying it, or that the iPhone 5 isn’t successful. The reason it’s not meeting expectations is because Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn, simply can’t make it fast enough. Its design is so complicated that it’s the most difficult device Foxconn has ever built.
Talk from around the internet says that the new iPod Touch is starting to ship to those who pre-ordered it. Several Apple customers are reporting that their orders are now en-route from China.
