Total stab in the dark here,but let me guess. There will be rumored shortages and every store will have minamle supplies? Same thing very year,lol. I'll be up at midnight waiting to pre-order....same thing every year.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Suppliers 'Scrambling' to Produce Enough iPhone 6 Displays After Issues With New Backlight
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Producing phones that have to be returned, or which don't sell right away, or losing sales because of lack of product, is not great production management.
Samsung sells two to three times the quantity of phones as Apple, with more models, and apparently manages to avoid similar overt quality and mixture problems.
That's an overall figure which hides problems with sales or supplies of specific models.
--
Apple's chiefs like to talk about how they need Chinese workers because of last minute design changes that require midnight parts exchange sessions. Does that sound like good production management? Or a cluster you-know-what.
I've been involved in custom handheld production. Sometimes last minute changes are unavoidable. But Apple seems to run into this situation constantly.
If you think that Apple's industrial design group (or industrial design in general) is just about making pretty boxes then you don't really understand what design is. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple he did basically the opposite of what you suggest. He made design an integral part of the process, not just an aesthetic that was applied at the end. And Steve was also relentless on thin and light. Go back and watch just about any hardware announcement from him and you'll see an obsession with thin and light.
Some problems only manifest themselves when you produce using standard manufacturing processes in volume.
These are undoubtedly pilot manufacturing runs, with volumes in the hundreds at most-- probably less.
Letter from Steve
Tim--
This iPhone 6 has to be even thinner. What if we use ZERO layers of backlight film?
--Steve
Tim--
This iPhone 6 has to be even thinner. What if we use ZERO layers of backlight film?
--Steve
Exactly . It's just sooo frustrating that people keep criticizing Apple post-Steve for things that could've EASILY happened if Steve was still CEO .
It's ridiculous .
Exactly . And again, Apple has made mistakes here and there for decades now . Mistakes were made during Steve's era and after Steve's era .
I just hate how people say "wtf is Apple doing" or "Steve wouldn't have done this" . There were plenty blunders under Steve ...
That's brilliant! You should email this to Tim ASAP.
..how people think they are smarter than Apple's best managers and executives.
Lol! I totally see your point,but he may be on to something,kinda.
I remember when the iPhone 4/4S (I forget which one) came out and they also offered their bumper for the phone. A huge oversite was you couldn't charge the phone with the bumper on it,lol!! So in reference to this story I'm unsure who or what was suppose to catch this problem and when. As far as the bumper,someone should've tried charging the iPhone with the bumper on first.
Yes, we all know how fond Steve Jobs was for thinness. And it has rubbed off disastrously on the folks at Apple. But the MacRumors groupthink has settled the matter: Innovation, which we obviously know more about than Jony and his group, is not conceiving of a thinner device and then working to build technology for it, but rather innovation is in fact making a device THICKER in order to squeeze in a bigger battery.
I'd like to see Samsung copy THAT!
You use the word seem or seemingly a lot in this post. Which means you don't really know. Yeah Apple initially got the mix of 5s/5c wrong and fixed it. So what? Nobody here is suggesting Apple is perfect and never makes mistakes. But this notion that they're constantly running in to production issues is nonsense. There is very little concrete information in this Reuters story. It's just more FUD that comes out every time Apple gears up to announce a new product.
Good point. I work in an extremely successful tech company that makes great, industry-leading product. But you would be amazed at the sausage-making if you are not part of it. Trust me, if you aren't part of it, you don't get it. We frequently convert people from field jobs to internal jobs, and they are invariably astonished at learning how complex it is to bring products to market. It is full of unexpected problems that need to be worked around. And I do not claim to have insight into what goes on inside Apple; only that I know neither you (all) nor I know what is actually going on. If you want to follow these stories for entertainment, fine; but they offer no insight into whether or not Apple is a well-run company by any comparable standard. The only thing you can visibly measure from the outside is what they deliver to consumers, and how successful those products and services are.
Last edited:
Indeed. Nothing special about building iPhones. Despite what Foxconn says. Despite the chamfered edges. Samsung phones, in my experience, are of better quality and finish.
Hell, look at Xiaomi. They're building Apple-esque phones and manage to sell them for far cheaper and much praise has been given to the quality of Xiaomi phones. Chamfered edges and all.
Taking this with a grain of salt, but my wife will be on the bleeding edge of a 4.7 inch as she is out of contract and ready to move to iPhone, I hope she has no issues.
I'm not sure I'd call that innovation. Innovation would be improved battery technology that allows for thinner devices AND longer battery life. It's hard for me to get worked up over something that hasn't been announced yet and no one has reviewed.
They're willing to torpedo the product over millimeters?
If by torpedo you mean to find out if it's really necessary, then the answer is a resounding "yes".
----------
Meh.
Expect a rushed product riddled with flaws and defects to satiate public demand.
Think we will ever see the day when a new iPhone doesn't come out every year? God forbid they take their time over say, 2 years!? Oh my!
Really? If this is a product riddled with flaws and defects, Apple will be nearly destroyed in the market, on wall street, and in the news. Take some time and think about what you are predicting, because not only are you basing it on rumors and hearsay but it's like you're nonchalantly claiming it's the apocalypse.
Apple has the longest dev cycle for phone hardware out there, and you may as well consider the S phones to not be a true new release anyway.
----------
Improved battery technology would be innovation...but so would thinner screens or even just moving things around to squeeze more into the same package. Innovation doesn't require invention.
I rememeber the same "manufacturing issues" last year and the year before the iPhone launch. Nothing to see here. Same thing every year.
Not necc. Apple has the longest release cycle for phone hardware out there. Unless you're on the inside - I'm not sure you can qualify that they have the longest DEV cycle. I'm not saying they don't. I'm saying it's conjecture.
Are you suggesting that the MacRumors groupthink is premature in evaluating a product that hasn't been officially announced yet? I think it's fair to pass judgement even if we know nothing about the A8 processor and other hardware-plus-software integrations.
I mean, I have no idea what I'm going to eat for dinner next Thursday but I just know it's going to stink.
You know...
Even under Steve Jobs, Jony Ive designed and Tim Cook ran supply chain. If anything, this is because Tim Cook isn't running supply chain.
Apple had some pretty bad designs and some supply issues even under Steve Jobs. Plus, this is a rumor. We tend to look at the past and forget the bad and remember the good. Hockey Puck Mouse anyone?
Realize that if they are doing something new (which Apple does quite often) then there are going to be challenges. This sounds pretty cutting edge and sometimes things don't work out as you'd like. I'm glad to see they are innovating, and I'm sure we will have a great phone come September 9th, even if supply can't keep up with demand right away.
Wasn't Cook supposed to be the expert at this kind of thing? Between the ugly design and the supply issues, I Miss Jobs
Even under Steve Jobs, Jony Ive designed and Tim Cook ran supply chain. If anything, this is because Tim Cook isn't running supply chain.
Apple had some pretty bad designs and some supply issues even under Steve Jobs. Plus, this is a rumor. We tend to look at the past and forget the bad and remember the good. Hockey Puck Mouse anyone?
Realize that if they are doing something new (which Apple does quite often) then there are going to be challenges. This sounds pretty cutting edge and sometimes things don't work out as you'd like. I'm glad to see they are innovating, and I'm sure we will have a great phone come September 9th, even if supply can't keep up with demand right away.
Point is, innovation isn't making something thicker to accommodate a larger battery. That might be a necessity but that doesn't make it innovative.
I too think the bands and protruding lens are ugly... however a I sit here looking at my 5S with Apple leather case on it I realize those things don't really matter at all. I never see the back of the phone, if this somehow improves performance for reception and picture quality than I am all for it.
Think about it this way... If apple made the phone 1mm thicker to account for the better camera, than you put a case on it, the phone is base thickness + 1mm to account for camera + case. Now with the thinner design and protruding lens you save 1mm of overall thickness and as long as you are putting a case on it, you never notice the extra thickness of the camera lens because the case makes up for it. Assuming you are going to use a case, it will make for a thinner device.
Come release everyone here will love it. They haven't messed an Iphone up yet, and they aren't going to anytime soon. Apple makes some of the nicest consumer electronics in the world because they have a lot of the best designers/engineers in the world. They have good taste, they are not going to release a product people don't like.
Think about it this way... If apple made the phone 1mm thicker to account for the better camera, than you put a case on it, the phone is base thickness + 1mm to account for camera + case. Now with the thinner design and protruding lens you save 1mm of overall thickness and as long as you are putting a case on it, you never notice the extra thickness of the camera lens because the case makes up for it. Assuming you are going to use a case, it will make for a thinner device.
Come release everyone here will love it. They haven't messed an Iphone up yet, and they aren't going to anytime soon. Apple makes some of the nicest consumer electronics in the world because they have a lot of the best designers/engineers in the world. They have good taste, they are not going to release a product people don't like.
Last edited: