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Apple may face ‘severe’ iPhone 15 shortage over production issue, report says

Trevor Mogg
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Hoping to get your hands on an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max when the new phones come out in the fall? Well, you may be in for a wait.

Apple is experiencing production issues caused by a new manufacturing process designed to significantly reduce the size of the bezel around the display, according to a report from The Information on Thursday.

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Citing two people with “direct knowledge” of the situation, the report claims that the Pro versions of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 15 could, as a consequence of the assembly issues, experience supply constraints when the handset launches in just a few months’ time. “The problem is more pronounced with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, suggesting there will be a more severe shortage of that model than the iPhone 15 Pro,” the report said.

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The iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, is believed to have discovered the issue as it started a process known as the “risk ramp,” which involves making hundreds of thousands of units to see how reliably the product can be assembled without any defects.

One of The Information’s sources said the LG-made displays have failed to pass these reliability checks, with issues reportedly occurring around a process that fuses the display into its metal shell. Apple is apparently working on adjusting the design of LG’s display so that it can resolve the issue.

Notably, Apple’s Samsung-made displays are not thought to be experiencing the same problem, enabling the tech giant to produce a large number of units in time for the handset’s launch in the fall.

Reducing the size of the bezel should give the phone a slightly larger screen than the 6.1-inch display on the iPhone 14 Pro and the 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This will be one of the features that sets it apart from the more budget-friendly iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, whose bezels are expected to remain the same.

You can also read about everything we know — or think we know — about the upcoming iPhone 15.

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Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
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