A key component of the Apple Watch made by one of two suppliers was found to be defective, prompting Apple Inc. to limit the availability of the highly anticipated new product, people familiar with the matter said, according to MarketWatch.
The part involved is the so-called taptic engine, designed by Apple to produce the sensation of being tapped on the wrist. After mass production began in February, reliability testing revealed that some taptic engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings Inc., of Shenzhen, China, started to break down over time, the people familiar with the matter said. One of those people said Apple scrapped some completed watches as a result.
Taptic engines produced by a second supplier, Japan’s Nidec Corp., didn’t experience the same problem, the people said. Apple has moved nearly all of its production of the component to Nidec, these people said, but it may take time for Nidec to increase its production.
When the watch was made available for pre-orders in early April, customers reported specific units rapidly falling out of availability: early birds successfully secured a watch guaranteed to be delivered by April 24, the release date, but by the end of the morning most units had an expected delivery date of June or July, according to the Guardian.
The solid gold Apple Watch Edition was particularly hit, with some models being so backordered as to have an expected delivery date of August (since then, the Edition supply problems seem to have been sorted, and gold-lovers can pick one up for June delivery).
