Related Articles
James Martin/CNET
The Apple Watch may run into some early production issues.
A new report from Taiwanese news source AppleDaily claims that the watch won’t actually reach the mass production stage until January. And blog site G for Games is reporting the watch will be assembled by a single supplier instead of two, as initially rumored.
Unveiled on September 9 at Apple’s iPhone 6 launch event, the Apple Watch is the company’s first attempt to crack the wearables market. At the event, Apple said the watch would be available in early 2015 but didn’t give a specific time frame. To launch the watch first thing next year, large-scale production should have already gotten under way. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, at least according to AppleDaily. Assuming the AppleDaily is accurate, the problem could rest with the suppliers.
Rumors had suggested that the watch would be assembled by two suppliers — Quanta Computer and Inventec. But the report from AppleDaily says Quanta will be the lone supplier. with Inventec having dropped out of the picture for unspecified reasons.
Quanta has reportedly starting preparing for mass production of the watch by upping the number of its workers to 4 million, according to G for Games. Apple and Quanta have also allegedly agreed to a deal in which Quanta would not make smartwatches for any of Apple’s rivals. But if mass production doesn’t start until January, Apple could be hard-pressed to launch its new product in a time frame truly considered “early 2015.”
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Via MacRumors)
