On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is moving ahead with plans for a late summer or early fall release of the fifth-generation iPhone.
And the first production run is estimated to be for 25 million units.
Sources in Apple’s Asian supply chain tell the WSJ that the new iPhone will be lighter and thinner than the previous model. It will also deliver an 8MP camera.
But given the newer, smaller components of the refreshed iPhone, it will take substantially longer than usual to produce the product, as it is “complicated and difficult to assemble.”
Nonetheless, the WSJ reports that Apple’s production partners in the far east should be able to successfully manufacture 25 million units of the next-generation handset before the end of this year.
“Apple’s sales estimates of the new iPhone is quite aggressive. It told us to prepare to help the company meet its goal of 25 million units by the end of the year,” a source from one of Apple’s suppliers tells the WSJ. “The initial production volume will be a few million units… we were told to ship the components to assembler Hon Hai in August.”
The report, however, made no mention of the iPad 3 – a third-generation version of Apple’s tablet. Earlier this week reports surfaced that September or October could also see a 3rd generation iPad introduction. For now, “industry chatter” and not concrete evidence continues to drive the speculation behind talk of a 2011 debut of the iPad 3.
