
Apple is ramping up iPhone production to a degree never before witnessed. That's according to the latest reports from Apple's manufacturing partners in the far east.
Between iPhone 5 production (just now swinging into full gear) and reports of a cheaper 8GB iPhone 4 coming for deployment in emerging new markets, Apple is believed to be on pace to double the total number of anticipated iPhone shipments through the end of 2011.
58 million units is the new estimate for both quarters (3 and 4) combined, says FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger. "Third quarter iPhone builds were revised higher due to an additional 3.1M iPhone 4 builds (to 15.2M units) and due to an additional 1.4M iPhone 5 builds (to 6.8M units)," Berger said to investors. "We still see 3M builds planned on the legacy iPhone 3GS to satisfy demands from various US and European carriers calling for a low cost device to compete with Android handsets."
"We see most of the [fourth quarter] iPhone production on the iPhone 5 (23M units), as iPhone 4 production drops off dramatically," he added. "Apple's current build plan drives total production to 102M units in calendar 2011, and likely driving about 95M units of sales."
Source: Barron's
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