The cost of iPhone quality control: $1.2B in faulty phones returned by Apple in 2013 alone

Apple has made plenty of headlines over its reported supply chain woes this year and now The Register has translated a new report from China Business claiming that Apple recently returned at least 5 million iPhones to Foxconn this year due to some kind of unnamed defect. The Register notes that “with a cost to manufacture of $US200 apiece, Foxconn is apparently preparing to take a hit of up to $1.6bn to cover the cost of making replacement handsets,” which would certainly be a major blow to the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer. The report of the returned iPhones comes after Foxconn earlier this month posted a 19% drop in year-over-year revenue that was attributable in large part to “disappointing” recent iPhone sales.

[More from BGR: Google is trying to shrink Motorola into success]

This article was originally published on BGR.com