Apple surges iPhone orders, plans 26m iPhone 5s in late 2011

Apple is significantly increasing the production of iPhones for the back half of 2011, most of which will be the iPhone 5, part suppliers divulged Monday. Volume was going up 12 to 13 percent to over 56 million phones, nearly half of which would be the iPhone 5. While it had trimmed back its iPhone 5 production for the summer down from seven million to no more than 6 million, Digitimes saw that it would more than compensate for this by surging orders in the fall from 14 million to 20 million.

Production of existing phones for the summer also won't taper off in spite of the run-up to a new model, the component makers said. Combined shipments for the iPhone 3GS and both variants of the iPhone 4 would still top 20 million, keeping Apple's shipments roughly on par with the 20.34 million it shipped in the spring. Their shipments should be scaled back to eight million in the fall as the iPhone 5 takes over.

Apple wouldn't quite get to a symbolic 100 million-unit figure in 2011, but it would grow faster than planned at 95 million.

The production queue if accurate suggests Apple will avoid a common pre-launch lull as customers hold off on buying an iPhone before a new model. At 25.5 million to 26 million units just in the summer, Apple would see a spike of 25 percent just over the last quarter. Fall shipments would also keep growing to hit 28 million or more. Unlike last year, Apple will have the advantage of catering to Verizon owners with a genuinely new iPhone launch for the first time and might also reach out to Sprint or T-Mobile with their first models.

Source : electronista