14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is cutting orders for iPhone 4 parts in what appears to signal a winding down of manufacturing ahead of an iPhone 4S announcement expected for this fall.
Sources are telling trade publication DigiTimes that printed circuit board (PCB) suppliers have cut quotes for the second quarter of this year by 10 percent, as a result of decreasing orders from Apple.
These companies include Compeq Manufacturing, Nan Ya PCB, Tripod Technology and Unimicron Technology, who’ve all been confirmed by industry insiders as PCB suppliers for Apple's devices, the report says.
However, they are expecting to see iPhone orders rebound soon, with a new iPhone rumored to launch this September. DigiTimes specifically mentions the rumored ‘iPhone 4S’.
Some say it’s the iPhone 5, others maintain that it will be an incremental upgrade, similar to that of the iPhone 3GS.
Apple’s iPhone 4S, as the media refers to it, will reportedly have a mostly unchanged design, and a relocated LED camera flash.
Under-the-hood enhancements will reportedly include the A5 chip which boasts a dual-core CPU, nine times the graphical performance of the A4 currently found in the iPhone 4 and iPad, as well as double the RAM (random access memory) all of which will serve running more powerful apps and services.
Most analysts have their money on a September event when Apple is poised to introduce a next-generation smartphone, be it the iPhone 5, or the iPhone 4S.
Apple this year has officially broken tradition by introducing no new hardware whatsoever during its Worldwide Developers Conference, making the next iPhone the first one to break away from the annual refresh cycle.
Another report from the same source claims iPad shipments are to grow 70 percent sequentially. The post-PC device is expected to hit eight million units sold in the second quarter.