Analysts at the Bank of America Merill Lynch have said that they expect the iPhone 8 to be delayed and are thus lowering shipment estimates with 11 million fewer iPhones expected to be delivered this year. The delay could stretch for a period of up to a month.

“Our conversations with the Supply Chain suggest that the iPhone 8 will ship 3-4 weeks delayed given technological issues which Apple and its suppliers are working through,” wrote Stefano Pascale and Wamsi Mohan, analysts at the Bank of America Merill Lynch.

Technological issues

The delay is being attributed to technological issues especially with the 3D and fingerprint sensors that are expected to be part of the features in the new iPhone. Apple is yet to disclose the launch date of the next iPhone but it is typically in the month of September.

As a result of the expected delay, the analysts at the Bank of America Merill Lynch expect that in the September quarter, there will be 11 million fewer iPhones shipped. In the December quarter there will be 6 million fewer iPhones that will delivered to the market. The delay coupled by earnings that will be weaker than expected will hurt the share of the Cupertino, California-based tech giant.

Other Wall Street firms which have also indicated that Apple is likely to delay the launch of the upcoming version of the iPhone include Drexel Hamilton, KGI Securities, Cowen and RBC Capital Markets.

Wireless charging

In a report that appeared in Fast Company, the inductive wireless charging technology that will be introduced in the new iPhone is being blamed as one of the features that will cause a delay in the launch. While the charging components provided by Broadcom are not problematic, the issue has been the software. Since the problem is not the hardware but rather the software, one way around the problem is for Apple to launch the phone and only activate the feature via a software update once the software has been perfected.

This was the case in the iPhone 7 Plus where Portrait Mode was activated after the phone had already been launched. The chips and the sensors necessary for Portrait Mode to work had, however, been built in from the beginning.