Apple is expected to take the wraps off the iPhone 8 in September, and it turns out that only a few lucky customers will have the chance of buying one.
Due to slow manufacturing speed of OLED displays, Apple will ready only a maximum of 4 million iPhones by September, according to a report from Digitimes, as always citing sources close to the matter.
In other words, Samsung, which is the only manufacturer in charge of building OLED screens for the anniversary iPhone, can’t align production with the estimated demand, so in September when the device finally launches, stocks will be extremely limited.
Apple originally planned to sell up to 60 million OLED iPhones this year alone, but given the production issues that Samsung is experiencing right now, this is very unlikely to happen. The figure can go up to 10 to 15 million, if production is accelerated in the remaining months, but it’s very clear that the iPhone 8 will be hard to find in Apple’s stores after launch.
On the other hand, it turns out that production of the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, both of which are expected to come with an IPS LCD display similar to the existing generation, is going well, so there will be no shortages for these two models.
Apple, however, expects the OLED iPhone 8 to be the more compelling product, and this is why the company is currently looking into the problem and working with Samsung to see if there’s any way to boost production in the remaining months before launch.
For the previous generations, sales of iPhones reached 10 million only in the first weekend after launch, which means that a 4-million-unit stock would certainly limit availability once pre-orders go live. Recent rumors pointing to a possible delay for the iPhone 8 indicated that Apple could indeed present the OLED model at the September press event, but kick off sales in October, only to manufacture more units.
More information is projected to be provided in the coming months as we get closer to the September launch.
