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iPhone's Summer Production Glitches Create Holiday Jitters (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Yoko Kubota, Tripp Mickle, and Takashi Mochizuki, reporting for WSJ: Apple's new iPhone, which is expected to be unveiled Tuesday, was plagued by production glitches early in the manufacturing process this summer, according to people familiar with the situation, which could result in extended supply shortfalls and shipping delays when customers start ordering the device later this month (alternative source). New iPhones are typically in short supply when first released. But if shortfalls of the new phone extend beyond the initial sales period, which is expected to begin September 22, they could weaken analysts' and investors' projections for sales in the crucial holiday period. The production glitches led to a setback of about a month in the manufacturing timetable. Foxconn, the Apple contractor that assembles iPhones, has been ramping up production at its manufacturing complex in Zhengzhou, China. The company is paying bonuses to employees who can help bring new hires on board at its Zhengzhou plant, which Foxconn said in June employs about 250,000 people.

8 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Too Bad So Sad by Scarletdown · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So it looks like many iPhone users are just going to have to keep using their current phone that they probably just recently upgraded to just a little longer then. Oh noes! How horrific!

    Or perhaps this will get at least a few off the constant upgrade treadmill at last when they realize the world didn't end just because they can't get the latest shiny nao.

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    1. Re:Too Bad So Sad by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 2

      Because only technical support from inanimate objects makes it possible for you to coax a woman to be near you?

  2. iPhone shortfall? Holiday Jitters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh no! Forget about Irma. This is a REAL emergency! To alleviate this problem, let's start the holiday season on the 4th of July instead of Labor Day. Better yet you should start it on Valentine's Day. Oh hell, just make it all year, like campaign season.

  3. No. by Spy+Handler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I predict that this year the demand for shiny new electronic gadgets will be less, simply because the economy (real economy, not the Fed-reported propaganda) is bad. People have no money and they're up to their eyeballs in debt (at record levels now).

    Don't believe me? Box office receipts and retail numbers are tanking this year, because ordinary people have less disposable money (even as easy Fed monetary policy is keeping equity/real estate prices at record highs)

    Also not helping is Apple's (and Samsung's) insistence that useful, proven technology that works well (fingerprint scanner / Home button) must be discarded so they can make the screen fill up the entirety of the phone. What's gonna take the place of the fingerprint scanner? Face recognition. Except that for face recognition to work, you have to bring the phone up to the correct angle in front of your face, and your face can't be covered in shaving cream or green beauty mud or anything else. Oh and you can't be in bed with your face in the pillow while unlocking your phone now, you have to be make yourself presentable enough for the facial recognition to work.

    1. Re:No. by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't believe me? Box office receipts and retail numbers are tanking this year, because ordinary people have less disposable money (even as easy Fed monetary policy is keeping equity/real estate prices at record highs)

      Or new movies are shit and people prefer to buy stuff online because they don't get pressured by salespeople trying to keep up with ever increasing and desperate sales demands from struggling retailers.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:No. by svendsen · · Score: 2

      And to add on to everything you have said none of these new products actually do anything magically better, nor do they somehow improve life by using it. While electronic gadgets might get a little faster, a little more storage space, they are hitting a peak on useful functionality. May be a few years before we see anything actually new that will really impact day to day life.

  4. Wrong by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Movie receipts are down because Hollowood continues to dig itself deeper in the same hole of crap it started digging years ago.

    The economy by most other indicators is ticking up. Yes savings rate is down a bit at the moment but consumer confidence is still pretty high.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Bonus for new hires! by boudie2 · · Score: 2

    Do they get to keep the bonus if the new hire jumps out a window?