China’s smartphone market might be slowing down, but Apple’s not letting that stop it from ordering a record number of iPhone 6s units ahead of this week’s keynote unveiling.
According to sources in the iPhone supply chain, Apple has ordered higher than expected numbers of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus units.
Based on the quantities of components orders, these numbers will outstrip even last year’s record-breaking iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — suggesting that Apple expects to sell more of its next-gen iPhone than any previous iPhone in history.
Today’s report also notes that this is likely to have a big impact on rival smartphone makers including Samsung, Sony and LG, which will see their sales squeezed more than ever.
News of Apple’s unprecedented iPhone orders isn’t a total surprise. The iPhone 6s is reportedly the biggest incremental “s” iPhone upgrade in Apple’s history, with major improvements to the camera, processor, RAM, and other areas — in addition to tweaks like a new rose gold color option.
Last week we reported how Japan Display CEO Mitsuru Homma had said Apple was increasing its iPhone 6s orders. “They’re coming to us with more orders, saying ‘give us more, give us more’. They keep increasing,” Homma said. At the time, we noted that we were unsure whether this meant that Apple was producing more iPhone units than usual, or simply shifting around its manufacturing contracts to give Japan Display a bigger piece of the pie.
Today’s report — which refers to multiple suppliers involved with different iPhone 6s components — suggests it is the first of these two options, however.
Now let’s just keep our fingers crossed that the iPhone Apple shows off this Wednesday lives up to the hype and confidence Apple is placing in it.
Source: Digitimes
