“A morning report from KGI reiterates production issues we’ve been hearing about the iPhone X, indicating that only 2-3 million units will be shipped for sale before the launch on November 3rd ,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac.
“KGI points to supply shortages for several components including circuit boards for the iPhone X antenna and wide angle camera, and the depth-sensing Infrared dot projector,” Mayo reports. “Ming-Chi Kuo says the ‘biggest hurdle’ for iPhone X shipments is actually the flexible printed circuit board for the antenna system. He says special materials, processes and stringent tests are required for Apple to sign off on produced iPhone X antenna components, with much higher specifications than iPhone 8 or other models.”
Mayo reports, “Given that Apple usually sells more than ten million phones in opening weekend sales alone, availability of just 2-3 million units for the launch is unlikely to satisfy customer demand for iPhone X.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you can get ’em, it might be smart to get an extra iPhone X that you can resell at a nice profit.
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queuing the mother of all ramp-ups
Apple never makes enough of a new model to meet launch demand. It’s the exact same story, over and over. I would guess that the only reason there have been no complaints about iPhone 8 availability is that people are waiting for the X.
The first minor production run makes sure we get publicity lines at the stores, and it also gives Apple a chance to discover any significant bugs in the devices or problems in the manufacturing process.
The X, being the most significantly different iPhone in a while, might be a good one to wait for. Let them shake out the kinks, let the “gate of the run” pass (as in Antennae Gate), let the early adopters find out the secrets, (which one has the good modem, which one has the slightly faster processor), facial recognition problems, and the obligatory WiFi issues.
Or just wait for the iPhone Xs? All of the above fixed, finger prints back, and notch-less.
There is no practical way to make enough units of a popular product to satisfy launch demand, unless you are talking about a simple injection molded plastic toy.
Apple would either have to (1) delay the launch to accumulate a larger supply, or (2) attempt to quickly ramp up production to unreasonable levels. Option 1 is stupid – the available units should be shipped when they become available rather than storing them in a warehouse. Option 2 is stupid, too, from an economic standpoint. It is very likely impossible, as well. If Apple could feasibly and economically ramp up production of the iPhone X, then I have no doubt that it would. Cook would love to have 10M to 20M iPhone X units ready to send out.
Should sell out within a couple of minutes. Guess I’ll have to wait for mine well into 2018.
So much for a supercycle. Demand is there but Apple can’t sell (and report revenue on) what they can’t get produced.
Jony Ive claiming it’s “coincidence” that the X and its technology was ready in time for the 10th anniversary of iPhone may come back to haunt Apple.
Candidate for understatement of 2017:
“Given that Apple usually sells more than ten million phones in opening weekend sales alone, availability of just 2-3 million units for the launch is unlikely to satisfy customer demand for iPhone X.”
Did Apple keep numbers low for PR and marketing or do they have a serious problem ramping the product. Same question at Tesla for the 3.
Then one could imagine if Apple knows the $1,000 phone market is smallish.
This isn’t a PR stunt, DavGreg. It is simply the initial growing pains associated with the fabrication and assembly of new and very complex technological products, both for Apple and Tesla.
That won’t be a problem since they’ll only sell a few thousand units anyway.
Yeah, sure… If you truly believe that then you are as deluded as our bully-in-chief.
This will be the first launch since the iPhone 3G that I won’t be a part of the buying pack. I’ve decided my 256GB Black A10 iPhone 7 Plus can give me another year of excellent service while the production and design bugs are worked out in time for the 512GB Fall 2018 iPhone Xs or whatever they’re gonna call it. If the iPhone X were offered with a 512GB capacity now, I’d be a buyer now. But the lack of that higher capacity this year really dampened my enthusiasm. I only have 39GB left on my 7 Plus. Need higher storage capacity is my number one reason for buying my next iPhone. 256GB is not enough capacity.