IPhone X rollout may hit snag in supply chain
Want an iPhone X? Getting one could take much longer than normal. Analysts on Tuesday said they expect demand for Apple’s newest, most expensive smartphone — which starts at $999 — to outstrip the limited supply due to manufacturing issues with the iPhone X’s facial scanning camera.
Apple said customers can start ordering the iPhone X via its website and app on Friday, with phones arriving as early as Nov. 3 — though potentially much later. Fans can also line up at Apple stores, which will start selling the phones on Nov. 3 at 8 a.m.
“Supply will be limited,” said Gene Munster, a managing partner at Loup Ventures. “My recommendation is that if you want an iPhone X, you should just be ready on the buy button at midnight on the 27th.”
Some Apple fans are already preparing to line up, even camp outside Apple stores, to get their hands on the iPhone X. App developer Klaus Bandisch, 62, says he plans to get in line on Nov. 1 at the Apple Store on Chestnut Street in San
Francisco. He’s had an iPhone since the first model was unveiled 10 years ago.
“That’s why this phone means so much to me,” said Bandisch, who plans to buy the space gray 256GB iPhone X, which sells for $1,149.
Unlike the iPhone 8, which went on sale last month, the iPhone X has a facial scanning camera that will unlock the phones by matching a user’s face to a previously stored image. That camera, which is different from that on previous iPhone models, might be a reason why there could be limited supply for the iPhone X, analysts said.
“They are just not producing them in bulk at a quality level” that allows production to ramp up, Munster said.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had told CNBC this week that he was satisfied with his iPhone 8 and didn’t see a need to upgrade immediately.
But Wozniak, who left Apple decades ago, told The Chronicle on Tuesday that Apple has contacted him and will send him an iPhone X.
“I am obviously going to accept the great gift,” he said. “Guess I will have it on the first day after all.”
The supply of iPhone X smartphones probably will not match the demand until late February or March, three to four months after the iPhone X becomes available in stores, Munster said. For other iPhone models, that time frame has been two to three months, he added.
It is unclear how many iPhone X smartphones will be available on Nov. 3; an Apple spokesman declined to comment.
“We’ll see what happens, but we’ll be working as hard as possible to make as many as possible,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.