iPhone X Shipping Dates Vastly Improved Compared To Early November, Here's Why

The improvements in delivery shipping dates for the iPhone X are due to better-than-expected production acceleration rather than low demand, according to a report by KGI Securities analyst Mong-Chi Kuo seen by MacRumors.

His research report comes weeks after Apple released the iPhone X on Nov. 3. The iPhone X initially had long wait times for shipments, but it started to improve afterwards. Apple fans saw 5-6-week waits for their iPhone X when it first came out. Now, Apple’s website says the wait for an iPhone X to ship is 1-2 weeks.

Reports before the iPhone launch said Apple had been struggling with the production process of the iPhone X. The issues were related to one of the iPhone X’s main features: the Face ID. In the recent research note, Kuo also said the iPhone X production had issues regarding the TrueDepth camera system for the Face ID. Another issue the analyst described was Murata’s failure to provide LTE antenna components, a problem solved by Career.

Kuo said the smartphone’s production problems “have been well addressed” in the past few weeks. Foxconn is currently churning out 450,000-550,000 units per day, compared to 50,000-150,000 a month or two ago.

Kuo said in the note:

“(1) Hon Hai’s daily shipments of iPhone X have climbed to 450-550k units, up from 50-150k units 1-2 months ago; (2) shipments of Career’s LCP LTE antenna will likely grow 100% MoM in both November and December; and (3) production yield of Dot projection module, made by LG Innotek (KR) and Sharp (JP), has moved quickly above 80-90% or higher from below 60% 1-2 months ago.”

With the recent production improvements, Kuo predicts iPhone X shipments in the fourth calendar quarter could be 10-20 percent higher than he had previously thought. Kuo said some orders estimated to ship in 2018 could be shipped before the end of the quarter. The ramp up means shipments of the device in the first quarter of 2018 will be flat or slightly lower than the fourth quarter.

Apple is looking forward to a busy holiday season. The company expects the fiscal 2018 first quarter to be its biggest quarter yet.

During Apple’s latest earnings call earlier this month, CEO Tim Cook assured the iPhone X’s production was coming along.

“The ramp for iPhone X is going well,” Cook said when asked about demand concerns. “Considering it’s the best iPhone created and with the advanced technology. We're really happy that we're able to increase week by week what we're outputting. We're going to get as many of them as possible to customers as soon as possible. I can’t predict at this point when that balance will happen.”

Besides the TrueDepth camera system for the Face ID and Animoji, the iPhone X sports an edge-to-edge OLED display and no home button. The 64GB iPhone X version is priced at $999, while the 256GB model has a $1,149 starting price.