iPhone 13 Facing Lengthier Delivery Times as COVID-19 Hits Vietnam Suppliers

It may take a bit longer to get that iPhone 13 you’ve been eyeing.

A new report from Nikkei says that the iPhone 13 is facing lengthier delivery times because of a COVID-19 wave in Vietnam and supply issues for new camera components.

The delay is centered largely on limited supplies of camera modules for the iPhone 13 lineup, the report explains, noting Apple assembles “a significant number” of its component parts in Vietnam, according to people who are familiar with the situation who spoke to the news outlet anonymously.

Most of the changes to the iPhone 13 are modest and Apple had been able to set aside most of the key components ahead of the rollout, but Apple increased the use of its sensor-shift optical image stabilization to all four iPhone 13 models for smoother images and steadier videos; the component had previously only been used in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

“Assemblers can still produce the new iPhones, but there’s a supply gap [in] that the inventories of the camera modules are running low,” one of the executives told Nikkei. “There’s nothing we can do but to monitor the situation in Vietnam every day and wait for them to ramp up the output.”

The report says the situation may hopefully improve “around mid-October” with production resuming at one plant in southern plant in Vietnam following months of disruption.

Wait times for an iPhone 13 Pro Sierra Blue with 512 gigabytes of storage is up to five weeks in China and Japan and four weeks in the United States, according to Apple’s website.