We’ve been hearing about a massive delay in the availability of the iPhone 8 for quite a while now, with some sources predicting that it might not see the light of day till early 2018. Here to dismiss these allegations is a new report out of China which states that everything is on schedule.
To recall, the main reason given for the iPhone 8’s rumored delay was that there were yield issues and problems related to Touch ID that needed to be ironed out. This may not be the case anymore as the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) claims that Apple’s 2017 series of iPhones will be unveiled in September and hit stores in October.
Upstream to downstream companies in the iPhone’s supply chain like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Kinsus Interconnect Technology, Simplo Technology, and Zhen Ding Technology are all apparently set to scale up the production of parts starting from June.
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TSMC is supposedly going to begin fabricating Apple’s A11 chipsets on June 10 and deliver it in high volumes by the second half of July. Meanwhile, Zhen Ding and Kinsus have both reportedly managed to improve the yield rates of SLP (a substrate-like printed circuit board) products to initiate volume production in June.
As for the firms which put iPhones together, Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron seem to have accelerated the recruitment and training of new employees in anticipation of mass production for the new handset. It should be noted that the EDN article doesn’t specifically reference the iPhone 8 in particular, only talking in general about Apple’s 2017 series as a whole.
It’s possible all this activity is related to the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus and not the special anniversary iPhone 8. The first two are widely believed to be coming out in September like always, with the last perhaps getting a September announcement but only becoming available in limited quantities.