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iPhone 6 availability may be limited by display manufacturing snag

iPhone 6 availability may be limited by display manufacturing snag

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Apple's iPhone 6 is widely expected to be announced early next month, however its initial availability may be constrained, according to a new report from Reuters today. The news agency's sources reveal that the backlight for the new phone had to be revised after the original, aggressively thin, design was found to not be bright enough. This is said to have put production on hold for parts of June and July and the display manufacturers are now "scrambling to get enough screens ready" for launch.

Reuters reiterates the common expectation that there'll be two sizes for the iPhone 6, with the smaller 4.7-inch displays having entered mass production ahead of the 5.5-inch version. Both are significantly larger than the current 4-inch screen size of the iPhone 5S, and it's likely that the 4.7-inch model will indeed see more demand than its larger sibling. There's also been at least one credible leak of a 4.7-inch sapphire screen that would provide a further point of distinction between the two phones.

It's not immediately clear what sort of an impact this pause in manufacturing will have on the initial shipments of the new iPhones. Launch day sales for the newest phone from Apple tend to run through inventory fairly quickly even without any production constraints, and this year's expected move to a bigger screen and a much-improved iOS 8 are two factors likely to amplify demand even further.