Apple will order up to 90m units of the next editions of its iPhone line, nearly a 30% increase over the volume it requested from suppliers for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Foxconn, Apple’s longtime production and assembly partner, reportedly is hiring workers at its plant in Zhengzhou, China to gear up for the mass production of the new iPhones, slated to begin next month, the report said. As with the iPhone 6 line, Pegatron will also be involved in producing the phones.
In addition, Apple has tapped Taiwan-based Wistron as a third assembler should the manufacturer satisfy Apple in a production test run that it can handle the load, the report said. If Wistron officially is added to Apple’s iPhone production team, it would mark the first time the vendor has relied on three assemblers to build new handsets.
The Journal said it relied on suppliers for information on Apple’s impending production run.
Word has surfaced recently that Apple has kicked off early production on its next iPhone equipped with the long-rumoured ultra-sensitive displays called Force Touch that sense the amount of pressure a user exerts on a screen. The units are said to be sized at 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches as are the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models.
The Force Touch technology can sense the difference between a tap and a firmer press, which enables users to control the iPhone based on how hard they push on the screen. Apple long has been rumoured to be readying its Force Touch technology for the iPhone. The feature already is included on the Apple Watch and the latest 15-inch MacBook unit.
Reports indicated the new iPhones, which will run on Apple’s latest iOS 9, will be ready to ship this coming September, with one report pointing to a release date of September 25.
Other rumoured features from various outlets point to the units including a DSLR-quality camera, a sapphire glass screen and a new rose gold-coloured model. The new colour still is in testing and may or may not end up deployed in final products, reports said. The units also are expected to ship with 2GB of RAM, double that of the iPhone 6.
