iPhone 5 Release Date Pushed Back Due to Qualcomm Production Issues?
The next generation iPhone may not see the light of day until October of this year due to an production issue at Qualcomm, a company responsible for producing components for the next line of LTE devices.
The company seems to be experiencing some issues with its 28nm modem chip that is expected to be included in the next iPhone.
"At this stage we cannot secure enough supply to meet the increasing demand we are experiencing," said Chief Executive of Qualcomm Paul Jacobs to analysts on a conference call yesterday.
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"Demand went so far ahead of availability that we've decided to start spending more money to get more supply as soon as possible," said CFO Bill Keitel to Reuters. "Any time we can't make a customer totally happy I'm going to worry. You don't want to give a customer a reason to go elsewhere."
Analysts believe that this issue will slow down the release of all the upcoming LTE devices set to launch this year, including the next iPhone.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster commented on the issue at Qualcomm stating that it points to the iPhone's launch getting pushed back until October.
"QCOM will likely support an Apple iPhone launch in October. Based on our checks, we believe the design win momentum of QCOM's 28nm products has been exceptionally strong and a 28nm LTE baseband is likely designed to the next iPhone," said Munster.
"QCOM's supply issue likely pushes the launch of the iPhone to October," he added. "Based on the increased capital spending this year from TSMC and QCOM's efforts over the last quarter to port its 28nm designs to UMC and probably Global Foundries, we think QCOM will have the capacity to support a Q4 LTE iPhone 5 launch."
