AP
The next iPhone will come with fingerprint scanning technology, says DigiTimes. The fingerprint scanners have been hard to make. As a result, Apple will only be able to ship 3-4 million
Apple originally wanted 10 million iPhone 5Ss with fingerprint scanners.
Apple already told the world the new iPhone was coming in September. It leaked that there's an iPhone announcement on September 10, and it provided revenue guidance that suggested the new phone would be out before the end of September.
We assume Apple already knew in July, when it provided the guidance, how many iPhone 5Ss it would have for this quarter. So, the difference between 10 million and 3-4 million, if true, doesn't matter.
Apple sold 5 million opening weekend last year. It's possible it sells less than 5 million this year, but we'd be surprised.
Its revenue guidance implied growth of 2.8% if revenue was at the high end of guidance. That would suggest slightly better iPhone sales than the year before.
It's possible Apple whiffs on guidance due to light iPhone 5S sales, but we'd be stunned.
One other thing to consider: Apple CEO Tim Cook likes to warn people that Apple uses a lot of suppliers. So, DigiTimes might hear from one supplier that it's struggling to make fingerprint scanners. But, there could be another one that's not struggling. Therefore it's possible there are more iPhone 5Ss in the works than DigiTimes realizes.