After multiple delays, Apple finally introduced the Vision Pro “spatial computer” to the world a month ago, and gave itself a lot of breathing room, saying the headset would be available early next year. Meanwhile, its manufacturing partners should ramp up production and address other issues.
However, according to the Financial Times, things did not go as planned and Apple sold 1 million iPhones in its first month on the market. Taiwan’s internal targets have been slashed. Two insiders claim that Luxshare Precision, which assembles the earphones, now hopes to produce less than 400, 001 Unit is2024. According to reports, the other two component suppliers received only 000, -400, next year’s unit.
The most expensive component is causing the most headaches — lower yields for two micro OLED displays made by Sony and TSMC.
Apple was working on a cheaper headset and considered other display types like mini LED, but ultimately decided to stick with tricky micro OLED. Cupertino is in talks with Samsung and LG to try and recruit them as display suppliers for low-cost devices (a second-generation flagship is also in development).
Regardless, the design is quite sophisticated and includes unique features like EyeSight, which projects and attaches views, which are visible to others. This, along with cutting-edge technology such as high-resolution micro OLED displays (which create the image for the wearer), inevitably caused problems when Apple tried to scale up production – which is why the release date was only a few months after the announcement . However, Apple and its partners appear to have underestimated the challenge.
Source (Paywall) | Via
