iPhone 5 Supplier Foxconn Says It Can’t Keep Up With Demand

Foxconn, the Asian firm that assembles Apple’s iPhone 5, has admitted that it can’t produce the devices fast enough to keep up with orders. The supply shortage could explain why sales of the iPhone 5 haven’t met analyst expectations.

Reuters reported, “Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group said on Wednesday the company’s flagship Hon Hai unit is finding it difficult to cope with the massive demand for Apple Inc’s iPhones. ‘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.”

Lorraine Luk from The Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed company official who added, “The iPhone 5 is the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled. To make it light and thin, the design is very complicated.” The official continued, “It takes time to learn how to make this new device. Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day.”

InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman noted, “One factor in the availability of the iPhone 5, at least when sales started, was the difficulty in manufacturing the iPhone 5’s in-cell touch display. Sharp, in particular, had difficulty getting good yields of the display. It has since corrected that issue.” Zeman added, “The materials used by Apple in the iPhone 5 are part of what is causing the problem, according to Foxconn. It uses aluminum for the back and side shell and an anodized effect for the paint and coloration. This combination is more prone to scratching.”

Sam Oliver from Apple Insider observed, “Sales of the iPhone 5 have been held back by limited supply since the device launched in September. Apple itself said the company has been ‘completely blown away’ by consumer demand for the device.”

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  December 16, 2020

• AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  December 11, 2020

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020