We could have had trouble in supplying accessories of iPhone
5 and strict specifications of producing processes of Apple.
Problems on supply
chain cause iPhone 5’s delay
The strict producing specifications set up by Apple and
problems on providing new accessories such as Lightning port and large screen
could be responsible for delaying launching Foxconn’s device, said analysts.
Foxconn - Chinese contract manufacturer, who mainly assemblies
Apple’s device - showed that they had been providing fewer iPhones because of
problems of designing and producing.
Foxconn’s president, Terry Gou, said that demand of iPhone
was very strong, but the company could not meet requirements of Apple in order
to supply more iPhone. He did not give more details about the trouble on design
and production that have caused delay. However, the analysts indicated that
high need of iPhone 5 and problems of supply chain should make obstacle produce
this device immediately.
Apple sold out more than 5 million iPhone 5 in the first
three days of launching. Since then, this smart phone has been lack of supply,
and Apple’s online stores said that you must wait from 3 to 4 weeks.
Apple sold out
more than 5 million iPhones 5 in the first three days of launching.
Foxconn is in trouble, and to be ability to postpone
delivering iPhone because of supplies “accessories and control of Apple for each
accessory”, Jim McGregor, an analyst at Tirias Research, gave hypothesis.
Apple has selected accessory suppliers, and sometimes many
suppliers provide one part for Foxconn. The delay of Foxconn could begin thanks
to inconsistence among parts which are provided by many different suppliers.
“That gives a contract manufacture very limited choices”,
said McGregor.
Too high standards
Analyst Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee, in the early October,
indicated that limited resources of accessories as touch screen are reason of
rare iPhone. Wu also showed Apple has given strict standards concerning to
produce iPhone.
“Our information expressed that iPhone 5 is not easy to
manufacture according to great high standards of Apple. The company is supposed
to make each model become an accurate duplicate where the error is measured by
micro,” said Wu.
Foxconn might have trouble in repairing production line and
find out accessories for a number of the new features in iPhone 5, according to
Dan Olds, the main analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. The new features
include Lightning port and shells.
“It’s difficult to expand scale for any supply chain so as
to create these technology products in such short time”, Olds admitted.
Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates,
also agreed and indicated that there were issues on surface and polishing of
iPhone.
“The requirements of manufacturing qualities have become
stricter and stricter when the prospects of Apple, as well as end-users
increase. Maintaining consistently high-quality manufacture is very difficult”,
he said.
Unstable employment and high-speed replacement of labors in
Chinese factories can contribute to postpone producing iPhone 5, analysts
identified.
No time to wait
Problem of supplying iPhone 5 is easy to identify now
because of severe competition in smartphone market, according to Olds. In the
past, people are willing to wait for iPhone, but it’s not true now any more.
“Android smartphones are more and more competitive, and someone
is considering waiting for 4 to 5 weeks to try an Android device”, he said.
