Foxconn is preparing for iPhone 6 production, TSMC already making the A8 chips

Mar 6, 2014 10:57 GMT  ·  By

While TSMC has landed most of the chip orders for the iPhone 6, Foxconn has nabbed a manufacturing order of a whopping 90 million next-generation Apple handsets, according to a report from the Far East.

The Chinese-language Commercial Times cited data from Citigroup Global Markets as indicating that “Foxconn Electronics is expected to land orders for 90 million units of the iPhone 6 from Apple in 2014,” DigiTimes reports.

The news is being dished out with a focus on the financial details behind the orders landed by Foxconn, estimates on global smartphone shipments, etc. But the most important tidbit remains Foxconn’s huge order – 90 million units.

In other words, much like TSMC has landed almost all of the A8 chip orders, Foxconn has convinced Apple it is capable of producing all of the iPhone 6 units estimated to sell in six months’ time.

We have no way of predicting how popular Apple’s iPhone 6 will be, considering that we know very few things about the device, but at least Apple and Foxconn seem confident in the success of the handset.

One of the flagship features of the phone is expected to be a bigger screen, a 4.7-inch panel with an even denser set of pixels than “traditional” Retina displays, if we can call them that.

Apple is expected to use sapphire as the phone’s cover glass, a material bested only by diamond in terms of toughness. Gorilla Glass is no longer on the menu for the iPhone 6 apparently, and Corning feels strongly about Apple’s decision, slamming sapphire as a bad choice, including from an environmental standpoint.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is said to have scored the bulk of A8 chip orders for the iPhone 6. The SoC (system on a chip) is said to have a quad-core 64-bit processor with a quad-core GPU built inside the silicon.

As far as the phone’s design is concerned, artists far and wide have tried to portray the device in various concept photos and videos. Some are better than others, but we can’t know for sure which one is closest to reality.

The consensus is that Apple’s iPhone 6 will be just a hint taller, a bit thinner, more powerful in terms of processing power and graphics, less reliant on cables (tethering), and better looking than any other iPhone shipped by Apple to date. For more rumors and speculation about the iPhone 6, visit the related stories below.