iPhone 5 Supply Chain on High Alert as October Launch Looms
Apple’s manufacturing partners are ramping up production of the company’s forthcoming iPhone 5 in preparation for its October launch.
Supply chain sources tell Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that Foxconn Electronics is pumping out 150,000 next-generation iPhones per day, with a goal of shipping up to six million in September alone. With volume like that, fourth-quarter iPhone shipments could rise as high as 22 million.
Which is just about the number some analysts expect Apple to sell during the period. BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, for example, predicts Apple will sell 21.5 million iPhones in Q4, though he argues it could sell far more than that if the company adds Sprint as a third carrier in the United States, and the debut of a brand-new iPhone at Verizon causes a big spike in sales.
“Since the iPhone 4 has been launched we estimate that AT&T and Verizon have represented 30 percent of Apple’s unit volume,” Piecyk says. “If the U.S. continues to represent 30 percent of Apple’s iPhone sales, it would imply a global iPhone demand for as many as 30 million iPhones in calendar Q4.”
Question is, can Apple deliver that many phones?