A new report indicates that Apple has placed an order with a Taiwanese manufacturer for 10 million iPhone 5 units, prior to the rumoured September USA launch. Pegatron, has been given the order.
In recent reports, it has been claimed that Apple is diversifying its list of manufacturers. Previously, Foxconn was the primary manufacturer for most Apple products however now the Cupertino based company is adding other manufacturers to its list as well. Pegatron, the Taiwanese manufacturer in question here has initially received this order for 10 million iPhone 5, but they hope to do big business with Apple, or so this report claims.
As iPhone gross margins are relatively small, Pegatron aims to compete for orders for iPad, MacBook Air and other Apple products and has increased production equipment and employment, the sources said.
There can be quite a number of reasons as to why Apple is shifting to more manufacturers rather than just sticking to one for production of the next generation iPhone, which it has previously done. First and foremost, it should be kept in mind that Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer Apple has previously awarded production contracts to, is having a hard time keeping its balance sheets in positive, which leads to the logical assumption that they could have asked for more money which Apple would not have been comfortable to part with. Even if its not that, more manufacturers mean more production which means less chances of a demand supply gap, which will arise by all means as people tend to go crazy when a new iPhone hits the market.
The best part about outsourcing, is that you never really have a shortage of potential service providers. Given the fact that labour is relatively very cheap in Asia, by all means Apple would have awarded the contract to Pegatron and would do so in the future for other devices as well, if they deem it feasible. One should however keep in mind that there are certain strict guidelines that have to be upheld by the manufacturers, as Apple would certainly not want glitches in their products.
Apple has previously done business with Pegatron as manufacturing the Verizon CDMA iPhone 4 was a task given to them. Looks like the company is satisfied with their work. The fact that Pegatron will build and ship 10 million iPhone 5 to Apple, further solidifies our claim that an iPhone 5 USA release is possible in September, followed by a global launch approximately a month later. 10 million iPhone 5 units would be enough to cater with the initial demand inside the USA, unit more units are built by its manufacturers.
We'll keep you in the loop on the latest iPhone 5 news, keep watching this place.