The long-awaited iPhone X will be released on November 3 and it has been reported by analyst Jeff Pu (Yuanta Investment Consulting) that the initial supply could be limited to just over 12 million units.
A report published at Nikkei Asian Review claims that Foxconn likely manufactured 2 million iPhone X models in September and that this number should increase to 10 million by October before eventually reaching 40 million by the end of the year. If this is accurate it could mean that there will only be 12 million devices available on the official release day which is now less than six weeks away.
It appears that the device’s TrueDepth camera and facial recognition system is the reason for slow production, something that KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated earlier this week:
Two executives working for iPhone suppliers told Nikkei Asian Review that 3-D sensor part makers are still struggling to reach a satisfactory level of output, and to boost their yield rate. This rate measures the number of usable or saleable units from a batch of components or final products produced. A low yield rate is likely to hurt a company’s margins and bottom line.
Rumors surrounding limited iPhone availability surface every year but this time it is expected that getting your hands on a 256 GB iPhone X will be harder than trying to snap up the Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus last year.