iPhone X: Apple's Tim Cook says 'we'll see' whether supply of new phone is constrained when release date arrives

'We'll be working as hard as possible to make as many as possible'

Apple CEO Tim Cook announces the new iPhone X during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Apple's Tim Cook has finally spoken out about rumours of delays on the new iPhone X.

For months, ahead of the release of the new iPhone, rumours have suggested that there won't be enough of them made to satisfy demand initially. The iPhone X might not be readily available until 2018, they suggested, since demand will be so much higher than the supply.

With the release date arriving on the new phone, those rumours don't appear to have gone away. And now Tim Cook has suggested they may be the case, and that people might have to wait for some time until they actually get hold of them.

Asked in an interview with BuzzFeed News about whether the rumours of stock shortages are true and how to prepare customers for long wait times, Mr Cook said "we'll see what happens".

"But we'll be working as hard as possible to make as many as possible," he continued, not denying that there will be problems getting hold of the new phone.

Pressed on whether that meant people should presume that they need to camp outside the store to get hold of the phone, Mr Cook laughed. (Apple sells the phone online and through its app, and that's thought to be the most reliable way of getting hold of any stock that's going.)

Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Cook was keen to press how much of a leap forward the new iPhone X is. It launched the phone alongside the iPhone 8 last month, and its special features include facial recognition and new screen technology.

"The iPhone X really sets the tone for the next decade in technology," he said. "It has a lot of new technology in it."

Pre-orders for the new phone open on 27 October. The phone will go on sale a week after that – if there are any left.