27-Inch iMac Production Halted Pending Fix For Display Issues?

Hardmac reports that Apple has halted production of 27-inch iMac models pending a fix for several display issues that have been affecting the machines.

According to one of our sources, the company completely stopped the iMac 27" assembling lines, the production will not resume before Apple has finally found a reliable and definitive fix for the remaining past (flickering and flashing display) and new issues (yellowish panel and flickering display) affecting those models.

In mid-December, shipping lead times for the 27-inch models slipped to two weeks amid complaints of flickering screens amid other issues with the machines. Apple quickly offered a firmware update designed to address the issue, although users have continued to report similar problems even after applying the update. While reports have suggested that Apple is working on a second fix for the flickering screen, more recent reports of yellowish screens have surfaced, with an internal Apple service memo indicating that the company is aware of the situation.

While shipping times for the 27-inch models did improve to one week around the holidays, they slipped back to a three-week margin earlier this month, with speculation centering around continued display issues as a cause for the delays, although Apple has indicated that it has simply had trouble keeping up with tremendous demand for its iMac line.

MacRumors has received a number of reports from readers who have seen their 27-inch iMac orders delayed in recent weeks, although we did receive a report yesterday of several orders that had been delayed until mid-February for which Apple had just issued shipping confirmations, suggesting that production may already be getting back on track.