Apple's still unannounced iPhone 6 may be delayed in its coming due to production delays on the iPhone maker's Asian supply side, as per analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities.
Kuo, who is well known for his almost always accurate reports about Apple products, says Apple could delay the unboxing of the rumored 5.5-inch iPhone 6 phablet, as problems with the smaller 4.7-inch version's in-cell touchscreen panel and metal casing are highly likely to be replicated in the larger model.
"Production bottlenecks on 4.7-inch iPhone 6 center on the yield rate of in-cell touch panel and metal casing," says Kuo in a research note. "As in-cell touch panel becomes larger in size, the edge of the panel may become insensitive to touch."
Kuo also adds that new manufacturing processes for the latest iteration of the iPhone are said to be causing issues with the unevenness of the color of the iPhone 6's metal casing. He also notes that the scratch-proof sapphire display cover on the larger model will likely not "easily pass the drop test near term," further complicating matters when combined with earlier reports that Apple's suppliers are suffering from supply constraints.
If Kuo's reports are true, Apple could very well introduce the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 towards the end of 2014 or even early next year. If Apple decides to unbox a phablet model in the third quarter of this year as was earlier predicted, it is possible that it will ship limited quantities far below the projected 15 to 20 million units reported by supply-chain sources. However, he says there is still the possibility for a full release of the bigger iPhone 6 this year, although it will most likely be sometime in mid-November in time for the Christmas shopping rush before the year closes.
Kuo predicts that if production delays the bigger iPhone 6 into early 2015, Apple will cut down the prices of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in conjunction with the introduction of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6's release.
Last week, Kuo issued another research note that says Apple is pushing back the mass production of its iWatch, another much anticipated but officially non-existent product Apple is supposedly working on. Kuo cites the unique challenges present in manufacturing smartwatch hardware and software as the reasons why Apple has decided to move production from September to November.
