Reuters reports that Foxconn chairman Terry Gou has acknowledged that his company is struggling to keep up with demand for the iPhone 5, echoing an earlier report addressing the difficulty of assembling the phone to meet strict quality control standards.
"It's not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand," Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told reporters after a business forum.
However, he declined to comment on brokerage reports saying that the group's other unit, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), had taken on some production.
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The Wall Street Journal has another report on Gou's comments, quoting him as saying that Foxconn is shipping "far fewer" iPhones than Apple has requested.
"Market demand is very strong, but we just can't really fulfill Apple's requests," Taipei-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Gou told reporters on the sidelines of a local economic forum.
Mr. Gou declined to say which of the phone's design features has caused production issues and how long it will take for those issues to be solved.
Availability of the iPhone 5 remains tight some six weeks after the first round of launches, with Apple's online stores generally quoting 3-4 week shipping estimates and lines forming at some Apple retail stores on a daily basis as customers seek out available stock.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)*edit*... it didn't...
The way Jony Ives designs phones so thinner and lighter, Apple will soon have to offer a "build it yourself" option. You pay $80.00 less and receive a box of parts and a link to online instructions.
It'll be called the iKEAPhone.
Why would it? It's not a conspiracy as much as a fact. Of course they hold back supply to create artificial demand. EVERY iPhone has had "supply issues," or so they call it. You'd think that if they really wanted to have enough, they'd make it so that there are enough made in advance.
Thank you for proving with your comment that you know absolutely nothing about production, sales , forecasting, supply chains etc.!
Take a business class and post again after that please.