That’s according to a new report Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
The production glitches led to a setback of about a month in the manufacturing timetable. Foxconn Technology Group, the Apple contractor that assembles iPhones, has been ramping up production at its manufacturing complex in Zhengzhou, China. The company is paying bonuses to employees who can help bring new hires on board at its Zhengzhou plant, which Foxconn said in June employs about 250,000 people.
The article reiterates previous reports which said that the OLED iPhone could debut with a possible $1,000 base price due to increased component costs. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Samsung has leveraged its dominant position as the world’s leading OLED panel producer with a 90+ percent market share to charge a premium for OLEDs.
The analyst pegs OLED unit cost at $120-$130 per unit versus the $45-$55 unit cost of LCD panels. iPhone 8 display modules are being produced in Vietnam by a Samsung affiliate.
A sketchy video of an alleged Foxconn presentation slides, dated August 14, indeed indicates that the Cupertino company was testing a rear-facing Touch ID sensor on iPhone 8. Consistent with today’s report by The Wall Street Journal, these slides suggests that Foxconn was not expecting to ramp up iPhone 8 production until August.
As a result of the aforementioned manufacturing glitches, precious time was lost and production was put back by about a month. In spite of delayed production, the article claims that iPhone 8 will ship alongside LCD-based iPhone 7s/Plus models on September 22.
