Guess Apple wasn’t lying when they said the iPhone 5 pushed manufacturing technology to its limits. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, an unnamed Foxconn executive explained why there is such a shortage of iPhones: the device isn’t easy to manufacture. According to the anonymous executive:
“The iPhone 5 is the most difficult device that has ever assembled. To make it light and thin, the design is very complicated. It takes time to learn how to make this new device. Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day.”
So if you’ve been stymied by the iPhone supply constraints, it should be getting better soon. Something that won’t be getting better, though, is the easy-to-scratch aluminum casing. The same executive noted that there were factory scratches on some of the first iPhones 5, but a new quality control system should take care of those in the future. However, the exec doesn’t let Apple off the hook, noting that the new coating material makes the phone more susceptible to scratching. The last fun tidbit from the unnamed exec? The factory that assembles iPhones 5 was only set up in 2011–so it’s new Foxconn employees that are protesting working conditions.
Get the whole story over at the Wall Street Journal.