Apple has reportedly upped its component orders for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, resulting in manufacturers receiving 20-30 percent higher orders than they were expecting.
The report cites sources from Taiwan-based touch panel makers, which includes the companies TPK Holding and the Foxconn-owned General Interface Solution (GIS). Both of these companies have previously shared touch panel orders, although Apple is allegedly relying more heavily on GIS.
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Even with these increased orders, however, it is unlikely that the iPhone 7 family of devices will hit the highs of last year’s iPhone 6s. iPhone 6s shipments in the second half of last year are estimated as being between 85-90 million units. Meanwhile, shipments of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are expected to hit 80-84 million during the latter half of 2016.
Recently, the chairman of iPhone 7 assembler Pegatron said he was “cautiously optimistic” about how Apple’s next-gen smartphone is faring in the market place.
Last week, German market research firm GfK claimed that there has been a 25 percent drop in iPhone sales outside the U.S., compared to sales of the iPhone 6s. Analysts in Taipei have also suggested that Apple is likely to ship between 201-204 million handsets this year, compared to 230 million last year.
While no-one seems to disagree that the iPhone 7 will wind up not faring quite as well as last year’s record-breaking iPhone 6s, today’s report indicates that the shortfall may not be quite as sizable as some as predicting.
Source: Digitimes
