Apple will probably class this week as a good week, with the company saying that they have sold 5 Million units of its brand new iPhone 5 handset since its release last Friday (that’s over a million handsets sold a day!). However, now that the initial rush and pre-orders are over the company has big hurdle to jump.
Even after the first few hours of pre-orders, the Apple iPhone 5 was delayed to customers who were late to the pre-order game as the handset delivery time was put back by a week, then 2 weeks, and if you are looking to pick up an iPhone 5 (in any variant) from Apple directly, you can now expect a 3-4 week wait.
This mega delay has been attributed to the new thinner and longer 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5, and a now sudden shortage of the display panels for the devices. The shortage of the screens is due to the manufacturing of the high-end parts, as the iPhone 5 uses in-cell displays. These screens feature embedded touch sensors in the actual screen and are made by LG Display Co. and Japan Display Inc.
Apple has reportedly also got Sharp on board to create the 4-inch screens as well, but apparently Sharp’s manufacturing output has been delayed by them trying to fix defects in their screens, which has put a spanner in the manufacture line, and has hence slowed down production of the iPhone 5.
Apple has always struggled to provide a consistent stream of devices upon the release of it products and many sceptics out there will say that this is a deliberate move by Apple to make the iPhone handsets more sought after, but hopefully Apple will get back on track soon and will start to lower those 3-4 week waiting times.
You can check out our Apple iPhone 5 unboxing on YouTube below:
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