Production of Apple's 'iPhone 8' said to be affected by unspecified Samsung OLED problems
Another supply chain source suggests that the "iPhone 8" supply in 2017 will be profoundly hamstrung has emerged, but for a different reason -- tight supplies of the the Samsung OLED screen.
A new report from the Nikkei Asian Review cites Samsung as one of the reasons why there may be delays in shipments of large quantities of the "iPhone 8" beyond "normal" constraints faced every winter. Previous reports pegged low yields of the fingerprint sensor for any potential availability delay.
"There might be a one to two month delay in Samsung's production of OLED panels for Apple," said analyst at research company IHS Markit Brian Huh to the Nikkei Asian Review. "Samsung originally plans to begin churning out OLED panels in May but now the schedule will likely be pushed back to the end of June or sometime in July."
Other reasons claimed to be potentially holding up the deice are overheating issues in wireless charging modules, the much smaller printed circuit board having low yield issues, and possibly 3DNAND flash supply.
"The placement of orders is much more aggressive than the previous two years but not as high the year when they rolled out iPhone 6 in 2014," said a memory chip industry executive. "The demand from this year's iPhone looks healthy but the memory chip suppliers are a bit concerned whether the upcoming iPhone's migration to advanced 3D NAND flash memory chips would be smooth enough to avoid tight supply or a shipment delay."
The report claims that the first batch of "iPhone 8" devices will see customers hands in late October or early November.
On Monday, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo cautioned investors that Apple's anticipated flagship "iPhone 8" could be in extremely limited supply in 2017, thanks to the expected adoption of a number of new technologies. As a result, customers could wait, or shift interest to the "iPhone 7s" family of phones which are expected to be released at the same time, potentially capping iPhone shipments in the holiday quarter.
The "iPhone 8" is predicted to sport an edge-to-edge OLED panel with a 5.1-inch user space -- the rest dedicated to virtual buttons. Slimming or removing the bezels would allow Apple to cram a larger battery into a form factor similar in size to the 4.7-inch iPhone 7. Also expected is a new 3D facial scanner .
With a complete redesign said to be forthcoming in the device implementing a curved glass back with wireless charging, some reports have pegged the starting price of the "iPhone 8" at more than $1,000.
A new report from the Nikkei Asian Review cites Samsung as one of the reasons why there may be delays in shipments of large quantities of the "iPhone 8" beyond "normal" constraints faced every winter. Previous reports pegged low yields of the fingerprint sensor for any potential availability delay.
"There might be a one to two month delay in Samsung's production of OLED panels for Apple," said analyst at research company IHS Markit Brian Huh to the Nikkei Asian Review. "Samsung originally plans to begin churning out OLED panels in May but now the schedule will likely be pushed back to the end of June or sometime in July."
Other reasons claimed to be potentially holding up the deice are overheating issues in wireless charging modules, the much smaller printed circuit board having low yield issues, and possibly 3DNAND flash supply.
"The placement of orders is much more aggressive than the previous two years but not as high the year when they rolled out iPhone 6 in 2014," said a memory chip industry executive. "The demand from this year's iPhone looks healthy but the memory chip suppliers are a bit concerned whether the upcoming iPhone's migration to advanced 3D NAND flash memory chips would be smooth enough to avoid tight supply or a shipment delay."
The report claims that the first batch of "iPhone 8" devices will see customers hands in late October or early November.
On Monday, Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo cautioned investors that Apple's anticipated flagship "iPhone 8" could be in extremely limited supply in 2017, thanks to the expected adoption of a number of new technologies. As a result, customers could wait, or shift interest to the "iPhone 7s" family of phones which are expected to be released at the same time, potentially capping iPhone shipments in the holiday quarter.
The "iPhone 8" is predicted to sport an edge-to-edge OLED panel with a 5.1-inch user space -- the rest dedicated to virtual buttons. Slimming or removing the bezels would allow Apple to cram a larger battery into a form factor similar in size to the 4.7-inch iPhone 7. Also expected is a new 3D facial scanner .
With a complete redesign said to be forthcoming in the device implementing a curved glass back with wireless charging, some reports have pegged the starting price of the "iPhone 8" at more than $1,000.
Comments
Apple is going to yet again make a lot of money on iPhone this year.
Believe everything that you read online, eh?
Apple has their own display calibration tech built into iOS, so why would this be an issue on a large scale, unless of course there's a hardware manufacturing issue.
If that is Samsung's intention, they wouldn't even have negotiated with Apple for supplying OLED panels to begin with, isn't it? Most importantly, this is just a RUMOR with no credibility or whatsoever. Trusting that rumor fully AND then making an allegation on an Apple partner (albeit a love-hate relationship) is just not on.
But any delay might also be tied to OLED manufacturing changes for TouchID that simply can't be implemented quickly on such a large scale as the iPhone.
As for Samsings OLED division screwing Apple i highly doubt it. If they have actually won the contract it would be too impirtant to the bottom line to screw iit up. People need to remember Samsung is amassive corporation, the different divisions have dramatically different goals, managment and even locations worlwide. Their cell phone operations are tiny overall
Finding a different supplier will not necessarily mean the problems vanish. They could even be worse. That said, the more suppliers the better (provided quality levels are assured)
It's a shame how Apple is always being targeted with "severe delay" rumors while other companies don't seem to ever be targeted in this way. Apple should acquire a news media business to combat this type of attack. Attacks on the iPhone using myriad reasons are like buckshot so no one can pin down any specific reason as to why production could be slowed. I think I'll basically ignore the rumors. They have no basis on my buying or selling Apple stock. A month or two delay is nothing in the long-term scheme of owning Apple.
I think Samsung could possibly delay Apple's iPhone production on purpose although I'm not saying that's the case. I wouldn't blame Samsung if they did. After all, this is a cut-throat business with billions of dollars at stake. However, if Samsung were suspected of hindering production it could have fairly large repercussions for future contracts. That sounds like fairly risky business for other Samsung divisions. Anyway, I'm not going to start some conspiracy theory based on unsubstantiated rumors.
Worst of all is Kuo by first pushing expectations to beyond 110 mil units, only to try to shatter this a few weeks later by babbling about "worst case scenarios demongly beoncong true".
Give me frickin sharks with frickin laser beams to tell those guys what I think about them.