Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 5 alongside a cheaper, possibly retooled iPhone 4 in the coming months, with industry reports indicating a September or October launch.
According to Apple’s manufacturing partners overseas, Apple is drastically ramping up iPhone production for the second half of 2011, with an estimated 58 million units expected to ship. With the continued sales of iPhone 4 models alongside whatever is announced this Fall, it looks like the last two business quarters of 2011 will be record-breaking for Apple.
Apple’s shipments are looking to nearly double, according to analyst Craig Berger of FBR Capital Markets. He explains his view of Apple’s production roadmap for Q3, as reported by AppleInsider:
“[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),” he wrote. “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.”
For the holiday season, Berger says that Apple will ship a staggering 30 million iPhones, with the possibility of 5 million more units being added to that total, depending on demand.
“We see most of the [fourth quarter] iPhone production on the iPhone 5 (23M units), as iPhone 4 production drops off dramatically,” he wrote. “Apple’s current build plan drives total production to 102M units in calendar 2011, and likely driving about 95M units of sales.”
That’s a lot of iPhones.
