The main cause of the iPhone 5 supply shortages has been made public: a Foxconn official admitted today that Apple’s latest smartphone is the most difficult device the company has ever had to assemble.
The anonymous source was quick to point out that they had already taken the necessary steps to improve productivity and address the quality issues reported by iPhone 5 buyers by implementing new quality-check procedures, but the iPhone 5’s new coating material is “more susceptible to scratching”.
The “weak” sales of the iPhone 5 during the first weekend of availability was a disappointment for Wall Street analysts, who estimated about 8 million units based on the 2 million pre-orders reported by Apple. Bloomberg was quick to report that sales didn’t perform as expected due do the supply shortage on a retail inventory level citing a Barclay analyst (who was pointing to Sharp as the culprit) citing in-cell technology as the main reason for the supply shortage.
But that didn’t work out. Sharp’s reply was simple and direct: don’t blame us for the hold up, we are making “adequate volumes” of in-cell displays.
So, the question remained unanswered until today, when the anonymous Foxconn official talked with the Wall Street Journal and admitted that they are to blame. The tech industry was looking at them and Apple with serious concerns about whether the Cupertino company would keep up with demand, when the news of the Foxconn workers riot broke, as the anonymous source highlighted there was a dispute between assembly-line workers and quality inspectors. The company addressed the conflict and neither of the two disputes taking place earlier this month slowed down production, or at least didn’t cause work stoppages.
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“The anonymous source was quick to point out that they had already taken the necessary steps to improve productivity and address the quality issues reported by iPhone 5 buyers by implementing new quality-check procedures” Yet to date I’ve received two (2) iP5s with the light bleed issue and one more with cosmetic damage. I now await my fourth iP5 (can’t get Apple to ship it out to me until they receive the unit that the cosmetically damaged one replaced). I guess it’ll take awhile for the supply chain to be free of the flawed/defective units.
Where on your phone was light leaking from? I’m on my 4 iPhone 5 as well.
From just below the power button…..between the glass and the aluminum band/antenna
I haven’t noticed it on mine. Still on my first (and hopefully last) iPhone 5.
seriously?? what does this matter..
If it’s not your phone then what does it matter to you? You do whatever you want with your phone and let me worry about what kind of shape a phone that gets shipped to me from Apple is in and whether I’m willing to accept it’s flaw/s. It’s none of your business really.
Odd. I had to get a replacement for my first one but when it arrived it had a sticker saying it had been inspected by applecare, and it was perfect. I assumed this meant they were checking for these issues before sending them out. Did yours have this sticker too?
I went to the Apple store and they gave me one that they said had been inspected by AppleCare……no sticker but it still had the light bleed issue.
…and I still wait for Bell to fulfill my pre-ordered black, 32GB iPhone 5 that I placed on September 14th (Toronto)