Apple seems to be facing issues in regards to Face ID sensors for its new and upcoming iPhone X. The company is set to take preorders for the iPhone X on October 27th, with November 3rd being the launch date. Due to this issue, there will most likely be less iPhone X’s going around at launch, even through Spring 2018.
Reported by The Wall Street Journal, Apple is facing additional manufacturing issues for its Face ID components. Let’s talk about what’s going on in-depth. The new facial recognition sensor on the iPhone X is divided into two halves: a “Romeo” module which projects infrared dots to map faces, and a “Juliet” module that reads the pattern.
Source for the WSJ told them that there have been issues in regards to manufacturing yields on the Romeo modules. The Romeo modules appear to be taking more time to assemble than the Juliet parts. This is creating a bottleneck issue in the supply chain and holding production down from going full force.
The iPhone X is expected to have high demand at launch. Observed by The Jolt Journal, the iPhone 8 didn’t appear to be sold out until two days after preorders went live. This gives us an idea that the demand for iPhone X will be high. Apple will have a hard time fulfilling orders and the device may be hard to find until 2018. This is not a good look for Apple since holiday shopping season is right around the corner. This new added supply constraints is taking Apple’s iPhone X issues to a whole new level.