The Taiwanese Foxconn factories in charge of assembling Apple’s iPhone 5 can’t keep up with the overwhelming demand.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told reporters Wednesday, “It’s not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of the huge demands,” Reuters reported.
Gou confirmed that Foxconn’s other unit, Foxconn International Holdings, is assisting with production, and noted that the iPhone 5’s design made it difficult to produce, according to The Mac Observer.
The Mac Observer also reported that Gou said Apple’s high quality standards were responsible for holding up production, quoting Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, who said “variance is measured in microns,” as required by Apple.
Nevertheless, Wu said he thinks Apple will still be able to sell 46.5 million iPhones during the December quarter.
Five million iPhone 5s sold the week of its Sept. 21 launch, and the product was responsible for boosting the country’s retail sales in September to 1.1 percent, surpassing economists’ expectations, as reported by the Census Bureau.
Apple reported its net profits at $8.2 billion for the quarter ending in Sept., attributed to a 58 percent jump in sales of its iPhones and tablets, according to a statement on the company’s website.
The latest news sent Apple stocks down almost 4 percent Wednesday, closing at $558; that’s a drop of nearly 21 percent from the $705.07 high during the iPhone 5’s launch week, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.
There is currently a three-to-four week wait for an iPhone 5.