Apple Reportedly Returns 8m iPhone To Foxconn Over Quality Issues

Apple has reportedly sent back a batch of as much as eight million iPhones to Foxconn after the Cupertino-based company deemed the new units unfit for sale. The reason behind Apple's rejection of the new batch of phones remains rather dubious at this point, but it's said it's "due to appearance of substandard or dysfunctional problems."According to China Business, and translated by The Register, the total amount that this could cost Foxconn would be around $1.6 billion. However, this would only be the case if the returned iPhones couldn't be salvaged, which seems rather unlikely. It's said at least five million and up to eight million iPhones were sent back to the Chinese manufacturer.

It's not said which iPhone models were sent back, but they could most likely be the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 4S, the latter of which is still being manufactured and going on sale. It could also even be the rumored iPhone 5S getting the quality rejection, but we highly doubt it, considering that we would've heard many rumors about the upcoming phone's production.

As far as the impact that this will have on Apple, it's said that eight million iPhone failing to pass Cupertino's quality inspections could create stock shortages for the company that could last a few weeks, but we doubt that will create many problems on the consumer end, as this time of year doesn't see as much shipments compared to the fall or the winter.

[via The Register]