The alleged problems were revealed this week by Chinese-language newspaper 21st Century Business Herald, which said that the manufacturing issues come from a factory in China known as Lens Technology. A worker with the company's quality control department said that the company is still trying to work out the right balance of paint thickness and opacity, in order to ensure the panel allows enough space for the digitizer overlay, but also gives the level of white that Apple expects the product to have.
Industry sources also indicated that each machine owned by Lens Technology can only cut three iPhone 4 glass covers per hour. The report said that the company's current production capacity can only meet half of Apple's demand for the iPhone 4.
Demand for the iPhone 4 has been unprecedented, selling 1.7 million units — available in black only — in the first three days. It was the most successful product launch in Apple's history. Last week, the company announced it had sold more than 3 million in its first three weeks.
The process of developing the glass itself is also lengthy and tedious. As noted by Engadget, the manufacturing involves "developing the tooling, cutting the raw material (mainly sourced from Germany, Switzerland and Japan), fine-milling using CNC (computed numerically controlled) machines, sanding the edges, polishing, strengthening, cleaning, coating, screen printing, baking, anti-shatter treatment, assembling, and packaging."
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Friday that the white iPhone 4 remains on track to ship by the end of July. He said quantities of the model will be limited at first, but will ramp up over time.
In June, Apple said in a press release that the white iPhone 4 has "proven more challenging to manufacture than expected." The white model has not been available since the iPhone 4 launched on June 24.
75 Comments
Well I hope they figure it out, because I really want another white iPhone to match my white iMac and white iBook. As these phones will be so rare at first, they will probably also be coveted more.
Oh man! I hope they figure this out somehow, soon. Otherwise, I am going to have a slightly unhappy person at home, who has been waiting (patiently, so far) on my advice. \
I would like to have ordered a white one but I couldn't wait. My iPhone 3G was rendered useless by iOS4 and I wasn't going to keep paying on a contract for a device that I can't use. Didn't want to cancel and renew later and loose my grandfathered limited unlimited plan either. Besides I have mine in a case so you can't really see much.
I don't understand why you can't order one on the website and get the clock started. They don't even have one on display at my Apple Store.
I should order ten of them and put them on eBay. Rabid Apple fanbois will suck them right up. SLURP!!
Besides I have mine in a case so you can't really see much.
I display *my* iPhone 3GS and the 3G before it in a Contour Design Showcase. It's *really* obvious that it's a white iPhone... (clear plastic panel showing the back of the phone)
The belt clip allows easy access to the phone and the case is great at absorbing the energy of impact. Mostly I just worry about picking up the phone rather than it's condition. At any moment it can find the phone, like recently where a rude FU Asian customer pushed by me, knocking it to the floor without sustaining any damage. My daughter has dropped it down a stairwell at school without harm.
The only change I'd *really* like is for Contour to epoxy the clip parts, rather than just melting four pins down a bit. I *do* pop that part. Oh, and something erroneously regarded as an issue is the case popping open sometimes when you drop it. I'd say the force used in opening the case releasing energy that would have gone into the phone instead, reducing potential damage.
Anyways, I'm waiting to replace my white iPhone 3GS with an iPhone 4, too. Oh, and cash flow is an issue, too.
Anybody figure out from this article whether the problem is the manufacture of white faceplates or both colors?