iPhone 5S Release Date Delayed for Production Constraints?

Apple's iPhone 5S may be going through some technical delays, resulting in a later release date, Commercial Times, the Chinese-language financial newspaper, reported.

The newspaper, based in Taiwan, previously reported a release date of either September or October for Apple's next iPhone, but now that could change to the end of the year instead.

The issue Apple is having, DigiTimes.com reported, is with fingerprint recognition chips and LCD driver IC's.

"Volume production of fingerprint-recognition and LCD driver chips for the iPhone 5S should have started at the end of June or early in July, but issues related to yield rates will delay commercial production of the two chips to the end of July, therefore affecting the initial supply of the iPhone 5S," industry sources told DigiTimes in a report published Tuesday.

The fingerprint recognition chip is designed by AthenTec, a company Apple acquired $356 million a year ago. Apple outsourced the production of the chip to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and the packaging to Xintec. Shipments of the chips, sources told DigiTimes, will be delayed to the fourth quarter.

Total shipments, including the iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and 5S will reportedly total 30 million units.

Fox News reported a Sino Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) user said the tech inside C Technology might soon be revealing all of the iPhone 5S specs. The same report said the next iPhone would include a four-inch IGZO display with the Retina display of the latest model.

The report also said the iPhone 5S will have an A6 processor, faster than the current model's, a quad-core SGX 554MP4 graphics, 2GB of RAM and an upgraded LTE radio. In addition to the fingerprint scanner, the next iPhone will also reportedly have a 12-megapixel camera and a dual-LED flash NFC.

International Business Times, however, does not believe the release of the iPhone 5S will be affected at all by the production constraints. Citing a report last year from AppleInsider.com, they said the iPhone 5 was supposed to have gone through "general constraints" and still came out on time.

"Supply constraints have become somewhat expected of Apple, especially with the iPhone," IB Times' report read. "We don't believe supply issues will impact the release date of the iPhone 5S, although it may affect how many units are initially sold in stores."

IB Times' Dave Smith wrote on June 29 he expects the iPhone 5S to be released on Friday, Sept. 20, two days after the rumored release of iOS 7 on Sept. 18.