What just happened? It's unusual for a company to single out one of its partners for blame over a delayed product, but that's what GPD has done. The handheld/ultraportable PC maker has named AMD as the reason why some GPD Win Max 2 models have been delayed, claiming Team Red breached its contract by not supplying enough Ryzen 7 7840U APUs for the machines.
As spotted by VideoCardz, GPD apologized on its crowdfunding page to customers who ordered its Win Max 2 but have yet to receive the devices.
The company says that the problem is due to its upstream supplier violating their agreement. It's claimed that the Ryzen 7 7840U, used in the more powerful version of the Win Max 2, was delivered in batches, but the upstream supplier was unable to deliver the second batch.
The note goes on to specifically state that AMD breached the contract and could not deliver the second batch of APUs to GPD's upstream supplier, leaving it unable to make production.
All versions of the Win Max 2 with Ryzen 7 7840U chips have been impacted. Shipments of handhelds powered by the 7640U have not been affected as GPD has that configuration in stock.
Unsurprisingly, several less-than-happy backers responded to the post. One asks for an estimated delivery time and whether GPD will offer expedited delivery, otherwise, they will cancel their order. Another person said to cancel their order if it still hasn't shipped, while one backer requested that both their orders be canceled.
The GPD WIN Max 2's crowdfunding goal of $3 million was smashed last year by 5,655 backers who pledged just over $5.5 million.
Back in March, AMD announced that the Zen4 and RDNA 3-based Ryzen 7040HS Phoenix APU series launch date was being pushed back from that month to April. There have also been availability issues with the Phoenix U series.
The last major news we heard about GPD was in June when the Shenzhen-based company said it was working on a pocket-friendly eGPU dock that could boost the graphics performance of many of its devices.