Amid talk of a record drop in PC sales, a new report suggests Apple’s iPhone 3G is undergoing a “recent uptick” in production due to increased consumer demand.
The report by the Wedge Partners research firm points to a trio of factors increasing production of the iPhone 3G: Apps Store advertising, wider promotions by carriers and a drive to offer multi-tiered pricing of data plans.
In the case of advertising, Apple has begun a new campaign pushing its App Store, generating increased demand for the iPhone 3G and the iPod touch.
A number of carriers – most recently Softbank in Japan – have begun giving away the 8GB model in order to sign up new customers. Along with Softbank, Britain’s O2 and Spain’s Telefonica are involved in such promotions.
A third facctor, according to the research firm, is growing talk Apple and its carrier partners, are considering offering a multi-tiered pricing schedule for the iPhone 3G.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
