The iPhone XR has 'not been authorized' by the FCC yet, because... notch on LCD
Tucked in AT&T's dedicated page for the iPhone XR is the disclaimer that Apple's most "basic" 2018 handset hasn't even passed the FCC clearance yet:
iPhone XR has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. iPhone XR is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
This may sound ominous, but is par for the course. Apple announced the release date for the iPhone XR in the US to be way into the future, on October 28, with pre-orders starting October 19, or more than a month after the iPhone XS and XS Max. Thus, the necessary paperwork may have been submitted to the FCC, but the phone itself could still be doing the testing rounds at the Federal Communications Commission, and it all may be because of a production bottleneck.
Just like many rumors insinuated before Apple took the stage the other day, the LCD iPhone XR will indeed arrive much later than the OLED models. The culprit behind this delay was yield issues for the "Liquid Retina" display, though the analysts differed in the exact reasoning. At first, the culprit was pegged as light bleeding from the LCD display around the notch, yet the supply chain sources in the later report said there was another bottleneck.
Remember the faux 3D Touch that Apple's Phil Schiller said works just like the real thing during the XR's keynote? Well, that layer may have proved problematic to create en masse as well, although the real thing has apparently been incorporated on the more expensive OLED iPhones without problems already. At this point, it's anyone's guess what are the real reasons behind the XR's delay, but Korean analysts are very happy with this development. Samsung Display, which supplies the OLED panels for the XS and XS Max will have a full month head start to reap the benefits:
Samsung Display's supply this year will depend on the iPhone's XS and iPhone's XS Max consumer response. However, since OLED models dominate demand for more than a month, Samsung Display is more favorable than JDI.
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