In an update on Apple’s supply chain ongoings sent to clients — as reported by “AppleInsider” (http://www.appleinsider.com) — FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger said Apple has revised upwards its current third quarter production to 27.9 million units from 23.6 million units, representing a sequential rise of 33%, mostly from GSM versions of the handset.
“[Third quarter] iPhone builds were revised higher due to an additional 3.1M iPhone 4 builds (to 15.2M units) and due to an additional 1.4M iPhone 5 builds (to 6.8M units),” he told clients. “We still see 3M builds planned on the legacy iPhone 3GS to satisfy demands from various US and European carriers calling for a low cost device to compete with Android handsets.”
The remaining three million units Apple intends to produce during the third quarter will be of the CDMA flavor, which “were ratcheted up slightly,” Berger added. For the fourth quarter, he predicts that Apple’s build plan remains at 30 million units. The analyst thinks the company could produce as many as 35 million iPhones during the three-month period ending in December.