The Apple Watch is rolling out to customers, but it’s taking longer to get into user hands than some might like. A new report out today by The Wall Street Journal puts the blame for the slow rollout primarily on a shortage of Apple Watch Taptic Engine components, caused by issues found in the parts supplied by one supplier in particular. The WSJ author who penned the piece clarified that Apple didn’t ship any Watches with the faulty part, however, per the publication’s sources.
https://twitter.com/daiwaka/status/593514479977009152
When contacted by TechCrunch, Apple declined to comment on the report, citing its longstanding practice of not commenting on rumor or speculation. The company has previously offered some insight into its work with catching up with supply, having offered the following in response to previous inquiries regarding Watch supply and demand:
Our team is working to fill orders as quickly as possible based on available supply and the order in which they were received. We know many customers are still facing long lead times and we appreciate their patience.
On Apple’s earnings call earlier this week, the company didn’t say much more regarding supply, though CEO Tim Cook did repeatedly reference the fact that demand continues to outstrip supply, and noted that they’ve been able to ship to more customers than they’d initially anticipated.
Current customers probably don’t need to worry about their hardware, given that it looks like this potential issue was caught prior to shipping, but it is interesting to have some insight into one of the reasons why supply is months behind customer demand in this case.