The continued spread of COVID-19 across Vietnam has led to delivery delays for Apple’s iPhone 13, according to a Nikkei Asia report Wednesday (Sept. 29).
The delay is centered largely on limited supplies of camera modules for the quartet of new iPhone options, the report says, noting Apple assembles “a significant number” of its component parts in Vietnam, according to people who are familiar with the situation who spoke to the news outlet anonymously.
Most of the changes to the iPhone 13 are modest and Apple had been able to set aside most of the key components ahead of the rollout, but Apple increased the use of its sensor-shift optical image stabilization to all four iPhone 13s for smoother images and steadier videos; the component had previously only been used in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
“Assemblers can still produce the new iPhones, but there’s a supply gap [in] that the inventories of the camera modules are running low,” one of the executives told Nikkei Asia. “There’s nothing we can do but to monitor the situation in Vietnam every day and wait for them to ramp up the output.”
One of the camera module manufacturing facilities in southern Vietnam has been ramping back up recently, which could mean production may crank back up in the next several weeks, according to the report.
Wait times for an iPhone 13 Pro Sierra Blue with 512 gigabytes of storage is up to five weeks in China and Japan and four weeks in the U.S., according to Apple’s website.
Related: Apple’s iPhone, Services Revenue Challenges Stretch Well Beyond Chip Shortages
Apple doesn’t reveal unit economics for its hardware offerings are not released by the company, so it’ll be tough to gauge whether supply chain woes will lead to slower sales for the iPhone 13 models. The company reported iPhone sales were up more than 37 percent through the first nine months of its fiscal year.
The potential for wider 5G acceptance and use could be good news for Apple, but it might also lead to consumers waiting to buy their new iPhone 13s until the technology gains more universal adoption, at which time consumers will scramble to buy the new models.
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