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Foxconn already struggling to keep up with overwhelming iPhone demand

Apple

The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are monsters. They're both far bigger than any previously released iPhone and the 6 Plus model in particular is gargantuan. They're also both monsters in the sense that demand for them is already off the charts. Earlier this week Apple announced that pre-orders for its two new iPhone models topped 4 million units in just 24 hours, setting a new pre-order record in the process.

But as with many iPhone releases, it appears that Apple may have a tough time getting supply to keep up with overwhelming demand.

A report published today in the Wall Street Journal relays that Foxconn is struggling to increase production in the face of what may very well be Apple's most successful iPhone launch to date. Part of the problem, the Journal writes, is that Foxconn this year has greater manufacturing duties than it did last year when Pegatron helped handle iPhone 5c production duties.

The Taiwan-based manufacturer, which has more than one million workers in China, is operating about 100 production lines around the clock in Zhengzhou. The challenge is to manufacture two complicated new iPhones on a large scale at the same time because Foxconn is the sole assembler of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. It also makes the majority of the iPhone 6 that comes with a 4.7-inch display, the people said.

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"We have been churning out 140,000 iPhone 6 Plus and 400,000 iPhone 6 every day, the highest daily output ever, but the volume is still not enough to meet the preorders," said a person familiar with the matter.

If history is any indication, Apple will eventually get a hand on supply issues, but we can only hope that it's sooner rather than later. Recall that it took Apple more than two months to finally get all color/capacity/carrier combinations of the iPhone 5s in plentiful supply across all of its retail stores.