Tim Cook on rumored iPhone X supply shortages: “We’ll see what happens”

Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for an interview with BuzzFeed News to talk a range of topics, among them the rumored iPhone X production bottlenecks and availability.

Conducted at the debut of Apple’s massive new Chicago store, the 11-minute interview was published earlier today. As you know, Apple’s most advanced iPhone will become available to preorder on Friday.  Cook made a one-sentence comment regarding the fact that many analysts expect launch supply for iPhone X to be severely constrained at launch.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. When asked about the reports, Cook added that “we’ll be working as hard as possible to make as many as possible.”

TUTORIAL: Handy tips to increase your chances of getting an iPhone X at launch

For what it’s worth, Apple today issued a press release ensuring fans that its retail outlets will have iPhone X available for walk-in customers at launch though it warned would-be buyers to arrive early to increase their chances of getting one.

On the other hand, Japanese outlet Nikkei Asian Review predicted today that the Cupertino technology giant will only ship about twenty million iPhone X units this year, or around half the planned 40 million shipments.

While production issues with the dot projector seem to have been resolved recently, Nikkei says that the OLED panel is now the main culprit as suppliers will only be able to produce about ten million usable OLED panels per month. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently estimated that Apple will have only 2-3 million iPhone X units ready before launch.

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