Every year when Apple launches new iPhones, it has increased its production run to cater for the demand that seems to follow Apple launches and this time round the iPhone 6 is said to be bigger than ever due in part to new Apple markets.
Whenever Apple launches a new iPhone, demand has always been insatiable, so much so that each new iPhone has smashed all previous iPhone sales records.
When the iPhone first launched in 2007, Australians weren’t able to get it at retail at all, being forced instead to either grey-import a unit from the US, as I did, or wait instead until its successor, the iPhone 3G, launched locally in 2008.
Now comes a report from the Wall Street Journal of Apple ramping up to produce the largest number of new iPhone 6 models for launch day ever, with between 70 to 80 million units of both new large-screen models on order for supply through the end of the year.
This is a dramatic increase over the 50 to 60 million iPhones 5S and 5C models ordered last year, and comes after at least a couple of heightened expectations that a larger screen iPhone would finally appear.
This did transpire in 2012 with Apple’s launch of the 4-inch screen sized iPhone 5, and while this was half an inch bigger than the 3.5-inch screen size the iPhone launched with, it was bigger yet still smaller than competitors who had already push to 5-inch screen sized devices and beyond.
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| iPhone 6 concept renders from MartinHajek.com |
Indeed, when Apple first launched the iPhone, former CEO Steve Jobs described its 3.5-inch screen as massive, especially when compared with the 2-inch and under screens seen on most of the smart feature phones of that era, but today, users clearly want to as much as they can without going to tablet-size screens.
The report comes at odds with rumours that Apple is delaying its larger 5.5-inch sized iPhone 6 to early next year, which have suggested difficulties in getting quality yields of 5.5-inch sized screens.
However, the idea of massive production numbers gives hope to iPhone customers that both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will truly be arriving as expected sometime in September, just in time for the massive round of fourth quarter sales.
Still unknown is whether Apple will be using its extensive sapphire glass manufacturing capabilities to craft screens for one or both of its new iPhones, nor whether the highly anticipated iWatch is also set to make an appearance, but both are certainly expected by the iPhone rumour-loving masses.
If history is to repeat itself, however, we can definitely expect to see more brand new iPhone 6 stock available in more countries at launch date than ever before, followed by as much new stock as Apple can get to as many countries as possible before the end of the year.
This will help Apple in dramatically capitalising on the rush of fourth quarter sales, and the big demand for a large-sized smartphone running iOS, a demand that large screen Android phones have tried fulfilling without truly stunning success, right back to Dell’s long-since abandoned 5-inch Streak Android smartphone.
As always, Apple has to balance stock levels so that the stores aren’t flooded with iPhones that no-one appears to be buying, with a small part of each new iPhone’s fresh appeal in being the first among your circle of friends to get the latest model.
Still, with legendary logistics man Tim Cook in charge, chances are very high that Apple fans will see 2014 as Apple’s crunchiest year yet!
