Apple iWatch Reportedly Suffering from Low Yields
Based on a new report from Digitimes, Apple would not be launching a Samsung Gear competitor this year, due to low yield.
The report states that sources in the Taiwan supply chain revealed that Apple’s upcoming iWatch is reportedly suffering from low-yield-rate problem, with the upstream supply chain only able to supply 30-40% of the original order volumes.
“The iWatch is built using powder metallurgy technology and then processed by CNC equipment,” Aaron Lee, Daniel Shen and Joseph Tsai report for Digitimes. “Since Apple requires the iWatch be thin and light and still features an elegant design, it has been known that this will pose a great challenge to the device’s chassis suppliers as well as related component makers and back-end process service providers.”
“Apple is expected to release the iWatch in the second half of 2014 with prices between US$149-229. Inventec and Quanta Computer were reportedly the manufacturers of the iWatch with their respective order ratio being 6:4,” according to the report.