iPhone 4 Touchscreen Shortage Halves Production Capacity?

Apple's iPhone 4 stock issues are down to a shortage of touchscreens, according to Rodman & Renshaw Inc. analyst Ashok Kumar, who told investors late last week that the Cupertino company has been forced to halve earlier estimates for the number of handsets it could expect to ship each month.  Kumar reckons Apple initially predicted it could ship 4m iPhone 4 units every month, but having checked with component suppliers believes that figure to be significantly over-ambitious.

The iPhone 4 is expected to make its retail debut on June 24th, though preorders for the smartphone have been underway since midway through last week.  Apple saw 600,000 pre-orders for the fourth-generation handset, setting a new record for the company, but the strong demand left both their servers and those of US carrier partner AT&T unable to hold up.  As a result, many would-be buyers made second or even third accidental orders, with attempts to clean up the mess apparently seeing legitimate pre-orders cancelled.