“June was a tense month for the engineers and designers on Apple’s iPhone team with ‘a sense of panic in the air,’ a source with knowledge of the situation tells me,” Mark Sullivan reports for Fast Company. “The company has been working feverishly to fix software problems in its hotly anticipated 10th-anniversary iPhone that could ultimately cause production and delivery delays, the source says. If the software problems aren’t resolved quickly, the new flagship iPhone could even launch with major features disabled.”
“The all-new iPhone, which some speculate could start at $1,200, is expected to debut at a press event this fall, and may be called the iPhone 8, iPhone Pro, or iPhone X,” Sullivan reports. “It’s expected to pack several new technologies that have never before been built into iPhones, and some of them are tricky to implement.”
“Our source believes Apple is using the Qi wireless charging standard, or a variant of it. The wireless charging components, which are provided by chipmaker Broadcom Ltd., are not the key issue, the source said; it’s the software that’s not ready for prime time,” Sullivan reports. “If the company can’t get the technology to work smoothly in time, my source said, it might ship the first phones with inoperable wireless charging hardware, then enable the feature later on.”
“Apple faces similar problems with the new 3D sensor. A recent Bloomberg report says that sensor is front facing and will be used to recognize the user’s face to unlock the phone. The report even suggests Apple may rely on the 3D sensor for authentication in lieu of the familiar Touch ID fingerprint scanner,” Sullivan reports. “My source says Apple has been struggling to get the sensor to work reliably. Again, the sensor hardware is not the problem, but rather the accompanying software.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If so, Apple is quite behind where they should be at this stage of the game. Problems like this usually occur and get rectified much earlier in the process.
iPhone 7/Plus hit shelves last September 16th. September 16th is 66 days from now. No pressure, Apple.
All that said, silly season started early this year, so take this sort of stuff with many grains of salt!
SEE ALSO:
John Gruber: Apple’s wireless charging accessory won’t be ready at iPhone launch this year – July 8, 2017
Apple supplier confirms new iPhone models will be ‘waterproof’ with wireless charging – June 14, 2017
iPhone 8 renders from highly detailed CAD file point to glass back, embedded Home button, wireless charging – May 16, 2017
Apple’s next-gen iPhone to pack revolutionary wireless over-the-air charging at a distance? – May 11, 2017
Apple patent application focuses on truly wireless charging via Wi-Fi – April 27, 2017
Apple has at least five different groups working on wireless charging technology – February 23, 2017
Apple joins Wireless Power Consortium – February 13, 2017
Apple’s ‘iPhone X’ to feature wireless charging and iris scanning technology, sources say – February 10, 2017
KGI’s Ming Chi Kuo predicts wireless charging for all three new iPhones – February 9, 2017
More evidence suggests Apple tie-up with true wireless charging firm Energous – December 21, 2016
Apple supplier Dialog partners with wireless charging company Energous – December 15, 2016
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple’s next-gen iPhone to feature all-glass case for wireless charging – November 23, 2016
True or not, all news is good news if it keeps people talking. (Well, almost all news)
Never ever ship Yugos!
The biggest mistake for any company let alone apple is the constantly push the prices of gone songs $1200 is the laptop a respectable laptop it’s a MacBook Air and then some or MacBook that is way too much money for phone I don’t care what kind of camera what kind of screen what kind of speakers you have shame on you Apple
You might want to check your intake of meds. I think you may have overdosed by the clue of your scrambled post with a side of nonsense.
This just in, analist, bloggers and journalists are in pure panic mode because the headlines of “iPhone delay” doesn’t seem to be effective in manipulating the stock anymore so they have all consolidated to scream from high upon the mountains the latest fake news about Apple panicking about something or another.
“THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING”
Still loving my iPhone 7 Plus so I don’t give a crap if the iPhone 8 is delayed until next year to give Apple time to get it right. Your mileage may vary. We’ve seen (SamSplode Galaxy 7 & Maps) what happens when things are rushed.
Really don’t people have better things to do than fret over the next iPhone iteration when the phone they have is perfectly fine for the moment? No one’s going to die if we have to wait a couple extra months. Certainly a far different scenario than that of criminally neglected Mac Pros and Mac Minis.
But they had time to march in Pride…
2017
I am all for GLBTQ rights, but business comes first.
Do you have any information on how many of these folks marching for Apple were software engineers who should have been back at the office solving software issues? Assuming there is a grain of truth in this analyst.’s assessment…
I do not know as I do not work at Apple.
Exactly….so you know zilch. Do you ever have a day off? Do you have any principles worth marching for? Do you deny others the right to free expression?
It appears you think you have the world bang_to_rights based on sheer lack of generosity.
This parade was on Sunday, June 25 i.e. their personal weekend time. There probably are people working serious overtime, but it’s not like this shows every Apple office worker in the Bay area.
I usually don’t buy into the obligatory “apple in trouble” BS rumors that we see leading up to every quarter and every product announcement….but…
….the quality of iOS 11 betas…far below any previous betas I’ve tested..on the 3rd release and still worse than any previous regarding the sheer number of bugs. I know it’s beta, and I know what the deal is..but they usually have things pretty polished by now (there are a few ways to get a hard reboot crash still).
Hope I’m just getting sucked into the hype and not seeing the result of bad management.
take it with many grains of salt?
how about taking it with lot’s wife – as in a pillar of salt
My sources have told me that everything is on track for the iPhone 8.
The author uses “source” six times in this short article, and refers to one source only, which confers upon the author great credibility, right?
All disciplines and all projects likely experience some anxiety during a rush to meet a pre-determined deadline.
MacDailyNews Take: If so, Apple is quite behind where they should be at this stage of the game. Problems like this usually occur and get rectified much earlier in the process.
Say what?
There is no ‘should’ about it. Software development is linear and ongoing at every stage until they stop supporting it and only then is it ‘finished’.
Also it’s a bit rich for MDN to throw stones when their mobile site has sucked for years. Many comments appear as a one letter wide column making them unreadable. But then, since they are usually from botty and Fwhatever, there is a silver lining after all.
If this is true about facial recognition, I certainly hope it is an option to enable or disable above and beyond touch ID , and not just shoved upon us with no option to only use touch id for authentication.