According to reports from Taiwan Apple has just increased its orders for manufacturing iPhones in anticipation of massive sales at the end of the year. Earlier this year Apple had ordered the production of 50 million iPhones, including the 3GS and iPhone 4, but has since informed its suppliers that it would like this increased to 56 million.
Some of these new orders will be for the new iPhone 5. Apple is expected to order around 26 million iPhone 5?s into production by Christmas, although only around 6 million of them will go on sale in Q3. This seems to be a tactic Apple is employing to create huge demand for the new phone to start off with by limiting supply, and then flooding the market in time for Christmas.
Q3 production levels for the iPhone 5 were initially going to be 1 million higher although they have been dropped with the recent revisions. However, they have not simply been pushed back a few months as Q4 production levels have been increased by about 6 million, much more than the Q3 reductions.
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In contrast, older models of the iPhone including the 3GS and iPhone 4 will see a spike in production in Q3 and then a huge drop off in the last quarter. This increase in production will mean that roughly 95 million iPhones will have been shipped by the end of 2011 and seem to suggest that Apple are expecting great things with the iPhone 5.