Cowen and Company of Wall Street reported that the scanner tech is to blame for the smartphone’s delay.
Wall Street firm, Cowen and Company, issued note to investors saying the iPhone 8 release will be delayed. It pointed to production issues regarding the fingerprint reader to explain the delay.
That same issue has been reported by a number of other Apple followers and media outlets.
Fans of Apple products expected the iPhone 8 to launch in September as has been the tradition for the company. This was likely to have happened alongside iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus updates. Unfortunately, Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities revealed that the newest version of the beloved Apple smartphone may not see its launch until October or November. Brian White of Drexel Hamilton predicted similar release delays.
The iPhone 8 is supposed to have a fingerprint reader located beneath the smartphone’s glass panels.
“Fingerprint yield issues remain unresolved (integrating the fingerprint under glass creates a much higher yield hurdle because the entire display must be scrapped rather than just the fingerprint module),” said Cowen. Though it may still be possible for this feature to be built into the smartphone, Cowen also stated that Apple will likely need to place the scanner on the back of the mobile device.
As a result, Cowen predicts that it will be more than likely that the next iPhone will see a release delay. That forecast is for a 4-6 week contract manufacturing assembly timeline delay. This amount of time would be adequate for Apple to repair the problems and “make a final decision” regarding how they would like to proceed.
What this means is that either Apple will need to cave and admit that they could not add the feature they wanted – something they may very well do – and move the new Touch ID fingerprint scanner to the back of the device, or they will need to hold off production. If this is the case, they would hardly be the first to choose to place their scanner on the back of the device. Many Android manufacturers place their own fingerprint readers on the reverse of the smartphone. This includes the Google Pixel and even certain Huawei mobile devices.
Kuo and White also underscored further explanations for iPhone 8 release delays. They also had to do with the device display. White predicts that there will be 3D technology integration and that this is holding things up as well.