The iPhone 5 production problems could pose a severe backlash for Apple if this rumor is true.
MacRumors was commenting on a post on 9to5mac by Seth Weintraub. Ironically, despite the name of his website, the guy has an anti-Apple bias. Just my impression, but he's more often wrong than right.
It appears that the tear-drop shaped iPhone 5 with larger screen and thinner, rounder body is seeing continued design and production delays, at least on one assembly line (Apple has multiple production sources ? Pegatron, Foxconn, etc). We therefore think that iPhone 5 will be delayed slightly at the very least and may see shortages all the way into 2012.
Delays on at least one assembly line = slightly delayed release? Not sure about that logic. I think it'd have to be a pretty major production problem in many factories for Apple to delay release. Besides, how would you know it's delayed if you don't even know Apple's internal target date? That's why all these headlines about the iPhone "delayed" from summer are a crock. For all we know Apple had a Fall release scheduled all along.
As far as shortages go, that's a no-brainer. Demand is almost sure to be much higher than supply for the first few months, especially since the phone is arriving during the holiday quarter for the first time. No matter how good Tim Cook is in handling the supply channel, production ramps for a product as popular as the iPhone is very steep.