XPERIA X1 Delivery Problems

[MLucas]

Wondering why it is taking so long for Sony Ericsson (SE) to get the XPERIA X1 to your hands? Seems like SE and HTC are having problems with the delivery of third party components. Due to a shortage of these components, HTC can’t produce enough X1’s as it should. The bad news is, the delay could go on for several weeks…

Read the full article.

[MLucas]

I was hoping I would get my X1 this week, since I ordered it two weeks ago... but I guess that won't happen...
Maybe I'll get mine before or on Sinterklaas (5th of December), that would be cool, but rather late...

*/sigh/*

[bloob]

I wonder what third party components are causing the delays...

[Reggie]

I guess demand was higher that they have expected.

[MLucas]

Originally Posted by bloob

I wonder what third party components are causing the delays...

Me too, but seems SE don't want to blame someone, since they won't tell...

Originally Posted by Reggie

I guess demand was higher that they have expected.

That would be a very big mistake by SE/HTC. How couldn't there be a big demand for this wonderful phone? :P

[bloob]

To be fair, manufacturers normally start the initial production run small, say 10-20,000 units to sort things out in the process, work out the kinks in some finicking or tricky parts, and get the suppliers cued in to the requirements. Once those are tuned, then volume production may start to ramp up to batch runs of say 50,000 units at a go or more, to allow for software updates, minor hardware fixes etc. SE will not blame its suppliers yet if they are still ramping up production, and they have mutual NDAs anyway.

I heard rumours that SE only ordered 50,000 total units of X1 in the current production run for this year. Not sure if there will be anymore batches planned. That's quite a small run for something with such a big investment in PR, marketing and support (dedicated X1 support lines in each country, global warranty, etc), and the materials used.

HTC makes about 1 million plus units a year for all its ODM and their own products, so 50,000 is just a small blip in its capacity.