Supply chain sources tell the Commercial Times that Pegatron Technology has received orders to build another five million iPhone 4S handsets; this is in addition to the 10 million it has already been contracted to produce.

Pegatron is the smaller of Apple’s two iPhone 4S OEM partners — the larger being Foxconn. It had initially been tapped to handle about 15 percent of the device’s production load, with deliveries not scheduled to begin until early 2012.

But supply chain insiders now claim Apple is looking to take delivery of a few million of them before the end of the year. Which may mean that demand for this latest iteration of the iPhone is greater than even Apple expected. Add to this record first-day sales of one million and it’s pretty clear that consumers are as enamored of the 4S as they were of each version of the device that preceded it.

As Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities observed earlier this week, “While the unveiling of the iPhone 4S received a muted response, both from the market and tech blogs, the customers have the final word, in our view, and they have spoken with resounding enthusiasm for the iPhone 4S.”

Which is interesting, and not just from a supplier diversifications standpoint. Qualcomm holds a 69 percent share of the CDMA mobile phone chipset market and would be the logical choice to provide silicon for the CDMA iPhone Apple is rumored to be developing for Verizon (VZ).

In any event, if Apple has tapped Qualcomm as its new baseband supplier, it’s a blow to Intel, which was surely hoping to hold on to Apple’s lucrative iPhone business when it bought Infineon’s wireless assets.

The brief story says that the lower shipments reflect the failure of the cellphone’s software to pass tests conducted by Verizon Wireless (VZ), which is widely expected to start selling the phone sometime in 2010. The piece says that shipments to Verizon will be delayed to the first quarter.

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And that would seem to belie claims by the company’s leadership that the term “Apple netbook” is an oxymoron. Asked during Apple’s Q4 earnings call last year if the company will ever enter the netbook market, CEO Steve Jobs said, “We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that….As we look at the NetBook category, that’s a nascent category. There’s as best as we can tell not a lot of them getting sold. You know, one of our entrants into that category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a NetBook lets you do, and being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket. But we’ll wait and see how that nascent category evolves and we’ve got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve.”

Certainly a kiss-off, yet one delivered with that “we could build a netbook that would blow your head off if we wanted to” caveat: We’ve got some pretty interesting ideas.

Apple COO Tim Cook was similarly dismissive of the netbook category during the company’s Q1 earnings call this year. “We’re watching [the netbook] space,” he said. “But, right now from our point of view, the products in there are principally based on hardware that’s much less powerful than we think customers want. Software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards small displays….And so, we don’t think that people are going to be pleased with those types of products. But we’ll see…it’s a category we watch. We’ve got some ideas here. But, right now we think the products there are inferior and will not provide an experience to customers that they’re happy with.”

Another harsh Apple kiss-off for the netbook category, yet like Jobs’s, it’s delivered with that “we’ve got some ideas” caveat–one that might just as easily be interpreted as “we’re going to redefine the category when we’re ready to.”

So what to make of this Commercial Times report? Like all Apple (AAPL) rumors, it could be something, could be nothing. But two things are certain: If Apple is planning to release a netbook it won’t be piece of junk. And it won’t sell it for $500, either.

[Image credit: Gizmodo]

And that would seem to belie claims by the company’s leadership that the term “Apple netbook” is an oxymoron. Asked during Apple’s Q4 earnings call last year if the company will ever enter the netbook market, CEO Steve Jobs said, “We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that….As we look at the NetBook category, that’s a nascent category. There’s as best as we can tell not a lot of them getting sold. You know, one of our entrants into that category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a NetBook lets you do, and being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket. But we’ll wait and see how that nascent category evolves and we’ve got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve.”

Certainly a kiss-off, yet one delivered with that “we could build a netbook that would blow your head off if we wanted to” caveat: We’ve got some pretty interesting ideas.

Apple COO Tim Cook was similarly dismissive of the netbook category during the company’s Q1 earnings call this year. “We’re watching [the netbook] space,” he said. “But, right now from our point of view, the products in there are principally based on hardware that’s much less powerful than we think customers want. Software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards small displays….And so, we don’t think that people are going to be pleased with those types of products. But we’ll see…it’s a category we watch. We’ve got some ideas here. But, right now we think the products there are inferior and will not provide an experience to customers that they’re happy with.”

Another harsh Apple kiss-off for the netbook category, yet like Jobs’s, it’s delivered with that “we’ve got some ideas” caveat–one that might just as easily be interpreted as “we’re going to redefine the category when we’re ready to.”

So what to make of this Commercial Times report? Like all Apple (AAPL) rumors, it could be something, could be nothing. But two things are certain: If Apple is planning to release a netbook it won’t be piece of junk. And it won’t sell it for $500, either.

[Image credit: Gizmodo]