Delays of Apple’s next iPhone model may get longer — and more widespread — than expected.
Mass production of Apple’s new flagship phone, which according to some rumors will be called either the iPhone 8 or the iPhone X, will be delayed to November or possibly even December, the Chinese-language publication Economic Daily News reported Monday.
Such reports often don’t pan out, but there has been more buzz than usual this year about delays of the new flagship iPhone, whose OLED display has reportedly been costly and difficult to produce.
Last week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts slashed their forecast for full-year shipments of Apple’s iPhone by 11 million.
Earlier last month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expects Apple will unveil the OLED iPhone in September as scheduled, but that shoppers will face “severe supply shortages” during the holidays.
Kuo said production on the OLED iPhone could get delayed until October or November, versus previous ramp-ups in August and September.
Monday’s report from Economic Daily News said “yield rates” for the new iPhones — including the lower-priced 7s and 7s Plus models — “have not yet reached levels that warrant mass production” at key iPhone manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron, according to a citation by Digitimes.
Foxconn and Pegatron both have declined to comment on “market rumors,” the paper said.
