Key Apple & Foxconn executives to meet amid iPhone X production woes
Apple COO Jeff Williams will reportedly be meeting with Foxconn chairman Terry Gou when he visits Taiwan later this month, where he's expected to bring up the topic of production bottlenecks possibly hurting the iPhone X.
Williams is mainly headed to Taiwan for the 30th anniversary of TSMC, Apple's exclusive manufacturer for A-series processors, Nikkei said on Friday citing two industry sources. Foxconn -- Apple's main assembly partner -- is also headquartered in Taiwan, even if most of its manufacturing work takes place in China.
Although issues could improve come November, suppliers have allegedly been struggling with components for the iPhone X's TrueDepth camera, used in Face ID and animoji. In particular the problem may be camera's dot projector, used to generate depth maps.
KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently suggested that Apple could have just 2 to 3 million units stockpiled by the time the iPhone X ships on Nov. 3. While that would often be enough for other products, the X will launch in over 50 markets in its first wave, which could translate into extreme shortages in places like the U.S. and China.
The situation could be compounded by supposedly weak demand for the iPhone 8 versus the X. While sharing some technologies like an A11 processor and wireless charging, the 8 and 8 Plus lack both Face ID and an edge-to-edge OLED display.
At the TSMC event, Williams could potentially run into Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, which Apple still depends on for many baseband chips despite a global legal battle.
Williams is mainly headed to Taiwan for the 30th anniversary of TSMC, Apple's exclusive manufacturer for A-series processors, Nikkei said on Friday citing two industry sources. Foxconn -- Apple's main assembly partner -- is also headquartered in Taiwan, even if most of its manufacturing work takes place in China.
Although issues could improve come November, suppliers have allegedly been struggling with components for the iPhone X's TrueDepth camera, used in Face ID and animoji. In particular the problem may be camera's dot projector, used to generate depth maps.
KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently suggested that Apple could have just 2 to 3 million units stockpiled by the time the iPhone X ships on Nov. 3. While that would often be enough for other products, the X will launch in over 50 markets in its first wave, which could translate into extreme shortages in places like the U.S. and China.
The situation could be compounded by supposedly weak demand for the iPhone 8 versus the X. While sharing some technologies like an A11 processor and wireless charging, the 8 and 8 Plus lack both Face ID and an edge-to-edge OLED display.
At the TSMC event, Williams could potentially run into Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, which Apple still depends on for many baseband chips despite a global legal battle.
Comments
New to Apple? Every year we get “woes” articles.
Tis’ the season!
It's interesting that the British consumer magazine Which? (well respected for its independence and methodical testing but a little superficial and naive on technology) has rated iPhone 8 as marginally inferior to iPhone 7 (and ditto for the two Plus phones). They say "The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are phenomenal but have been beaten in our tests by the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, partly due to slightly poorer battery life".
The new case design seems to have passed them by and their average-user perspective maybe means that the evolutionary improvements elsewhere are rated less important. Wireless charging gets just a passing mention (though I struggle to get excited about it too, it's not as though no wires are involved and I can put the device down near a power point and it ends up charged).
I hardly dare mention that Which? rates the Galaxy S7, S8 and Note 8 marginally better that the iPhone 7! Battery life and "slightly better cameras", since you ask.
The camera is distinctly an improvement (more than slightly) and the phone ridiculously faster (and it shows not just in how it reacts, but in what you can actually do)
The screen has true tone and its also a better screen, etc.
I mean, they could justify the fheir rating by simply saying the price is not worth the improvement, but rating the 7 over the 8 just shows they didn't care for the truth.
For what it is worth, when I upgraded from my 5s to the 7, I found a phenomenal improvement in battery life. I wouldn't call myself a heavy user of the main battery draining activities (like my kids), but I still make a few hours of phone calls, message, play music or podcasts for an hour or two, check emails and read web/books, with a bit of navigation thrown in - and I often have 40% of more at the end of the day. With a 5s it was almost drained by end of day.
Is AI now so desperate for ad clicks that they’re actually coming up with vacuous headlines and stories in order to provoke a reaction?
Do you chaps actually care what you write or are we now at a stage where anything goes?
The headline should read “Apple meets with with Foxconn to talk about phones and stuff” because given the solid lack of evidence presented in the article following it (and that’s 23 seconds I won’t get back) that’s all that happened.
2) "Lasts up to 2 hours longer than iPhone 7" clearly refers to a daily average for a typical user. If all you do is watch wireless videos you'll get about the same amount, but if you're very heavy into wireless audio you'll get around 20 hours more.
I meant Apple 8 Plus.
Apple 8 Plus Internet time 13 hours - Apple X internet time 12 hours = 1 hour better for the plus
Apple 8 Plus Video time 14 hours - Apple X video time 13 hours = 1 hour better for the plus.
So the iPhone X only lasts 2 hours longer if its not really used. Otherwise the iPhone 7Plus and 8Plus are better.
I guess people are still going to need battery cases with the new iphone X.
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do I really need this: /s