According to sources in a China Business report, Apple has returned up to 8 million iPhones to manufacturer, Foxconn, on the grounds that they were not fit or sale. The gaffe could not only result in lower supply, but delay the release of the next iPhone which is scheduled for later this year.

Having to reproduce these tainted phones at a cost of $30 per unit, this blunder could cost Foxconn up to $158 million.

It’s unclear whether the defects affect the iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 but, according to The Register, it will mess with the iPhone supply chain in a big way:

“[T]he impact of eight million phones failing to appear would punch a two-or-three-week hole in Apple's supply chain, an assertion we make on the basis that the company says it sold 47.8m handsets in its last quarter. That quarter included Christmas, so we can safely assume the January-March quarter sees a little less handset-selling action.

If the botched phone is a newer-and-as-yet-unreleased handset, it could be grounds for a delay in its announcement or release.”

Could this raise the already inflated iPhone prices in Vietnam? We won't know for sure until it's too late!  Just in case, everyone reading this should step away from their computers and immediately fly to Singapore.

You can come back when you’re iPhone stackin’ like this.

[Image via statueclothing]