I have heard so many different reason why Apple is not shipping the IPhone to the Phone Carries. Can someone set the record straight? Are they having trouble making them? Is it the fight the broke out in the factory and it had to stop production for a while? Or are they just trying to keep the hype around the phone at any cost?
I know Steve Jobs is turning over in his grave for this issue!!!
The only people that can set the record straight is Apple.
But, I will do my best to give you some insight to the issues at hand.
1) The aluminum backed shell is causing issues with quality control.
2) The new tolerances for fit are causing issues with production count.
3) The yield rate on the new display is slowing down production rate.
4) Manufacturing 3 unique base models (GSM LTE, CDMA LTE, World LTE).
5) Manufacturing 3 memory sizes for each unique model.
6) Manufacturing 2 colors for each unique memory size and model.
7) Deployment to more than a dozen countries.
Notice I didn't list the standard "Higher than expected demand"? The reason for that is simple. Apple will never be able to manufacture the numbers of units needed for a launch because Apple can not predict how many units they will need. It is impossible. Especially when you are looking at 18 unique devices. And to top it off, there is still a huge demand for the iPhone 4 and 4S which are still in production and account for another 6 unique devices.
Then if you really want to look at the big picture, you have to take into account the iPad Mini which was being ramped up, the retooling for the iPad 4 and the iPod Touch and iPod Nano refreshes. There are only so many workers, with so many hours, with so much floor space for manufacturing, with so much raw material for processing that has a limited yield rate of final parts that passes QC (Quality Control).
Or to look at it another way. If they hire 3 million people to make the devices and contract 1000 companies to make the parts and they knock out the entire quantity needed for the first month of sales, what happens to all those people's jobs after month three when manufacturing capacity outstrips demand by a factor of 10. They all end up laid off and Apple is stuck with a bill that eats every penny of the profit they just made.
Hopefully this rather long winded answer gives you a much better appreciation for the reality of the issues that has to be considered and dealt with.