Apple's new iPhone models - iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus - went on pre-orders in the United States among several other regions on September 12. While several US carriers are still promising a September 25 shipping date for the iPhone 6s, new pre-orders for the iPhone 6s Plus are already showing 3-4 weeks delay in shipping.
But that's not entirely because of the high-demand for the iPhone 6s Plus, as Apple had pointed out in its announcement about being on track for record opening weekend sales of the new iPhone models. A new report suggests that Apple is having supply issues with the backlight hardware of the iPhone 6s Plus.
As per a note by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo to investors, Japanese supplier Minebea, which produces the backlight hardware for the iPhone 6s Plus, is having supply issues. The note further added that Apple has transferred backlight module orders to its other supplier, Radiant, which would now see its orders increase by 70 to 80 percent to 5-4 million units in September.
"We believe Radiant is receiving rush orders, because Minebea is having production issues. This tells us that Radiant is more skilled at producing backlight module for 6s Plus given its accumulated abundant experience supplying the backlight module for iPad mini (a similar size to 6s Plus)," the note said.
"To accelerate availability, we believe Apple has been transferring substantial 6s Plus backlight module orders to Radiant. As such, we estimate the company's iPhone 6s Plus backlight module orders to increase by 70-80 percent to 4-5mn units in September, boosting its order allocation from 35-45 percent to 70-80 percent."
The company announced on Monday that the pre-orders of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus was on pace to beat last year's first-weekend record of selling more than 10 million iPhone units. The company also noted that the demand of iPhone 6s Plus exceeded its expectations. The note from Kuo said that Apple will have 1.5 million to 2 million iPhone 6s Plus units ready to ship on September 25.
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