- The iPhone X, unlike the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, launched with a new design, an OLED display, and a new range of camera sensors that let you unlock the device with Face ID. This all led to manufacturing troubles for Apple. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the Cupertino giant will be able to stabilise the production cycle soon, and launch all of 2018’s iPhones with Face ID and “on time.”
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently sent out a note to investors, obtained by Business Insider, in which he says he expects all 2018 iPhones to launch “on time,” and support the company’s new facial recognition system.
This year, for the first time in the product’s history, Apple launched three different iPhones. Two of them, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, are the regular follow-ups to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus of last year. The iPhone X, however, is a different story.
It has a radically different, almost-all-screen design, a new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, and it replaces the home button and Touch ID for a new biometric system that uses your face to unlock the phone, Face ID.
Both the camera array used to enable all of Face ID’s sensor and the OLED display proved very difficult to manufacture, particularly to Apple’s high standards, and that delayed the launch of iPhone X on the market by six weeks (as opposed to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus).
And the iPhone X wasn't just delayed, but also extremely limited in supply; Kuo's own estimate bills the output at 20 to 30 million iPhones ready to land in customers' hands by the end of the year - a period where previous iPhones have easily smashed the 40 million threshold.
Next year things may get a little better for both Apple and avid customers, with the production cycle stabilising and Apple capable of meeting the always extraordinary demand with a timely launch of the iPhone's 2018 lineup.
