Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant that produces the iPhone 3G for Apple, has ramped up production to 800,000 units per week, says a source close to Apple with direct knowledge of the numbers. This is “above current full capacity” and there may be some concerns with quality control.
Apple sold just 6 million of its first generation iPhones.
Foxconn factories will be able to ramp production up significantly over time, says our source. But at current sell rates, the company is producing iPhones at a run rate of over 40 million units per year, well beyond early estimates of demand for the product of 25 million over the 3G product lifecycle.
Apple is continuing to add countries – the iPhone is available in 23 countries today, and another 50 will be added this year. We’ve heard that Foxconn was initially told to expect sales of up to 40 million units in the first year, but that those numbers are being revised upwards sharply.
About 1 billion mobile phones were sold worldwide in 2007, says Gartner (Nokia sold about 435 million of them).
michael, you deserve to get to where you are. but get some sleep, the world can wait for a few hours.
“michael, you deserve to get to where you are. but get some sleep, the world can wait for a few hours.”
No — I want my news NOW!
WOW, Thats Amazing, Apple Is invading Nokia, But I guess will comeback with more powerful gadget then iPhone. isn’t it?
@sd: Nice comment, really well said, I was stunned to see Michael’s post in my Google feed reader. May be this tells us, why TC is where it is today.
Apart from that, just as i got free from covering the news that apple will be launching iPhone nano before christmas, we have another gr8 news about iPhone that needs coverage.
Thanks for sharing this info with us Mike
Yah, maybe, now Michael have achieved what he want, he should sit back and relax but, Dude, Great men never sit back and relax, its my observation and this is the only reason How they achieve what they want…
Yeah we want the News. So no rest for Michael
-Vikram
http://elagaan.com
So Apple and their associates really need to figure out a way to guarantee both massive quantity and quality – because it’d be a real shame and could mean failure if they don’t maintain both of those aspects.
I think most quality issues with the iPhone can be fixed with software updates, notwithstanding the reported cracks in iPhone 3G cases. Software is the key differentiator that Apple has compared to it’s rivals, iPhone OS is far more powerful and flexible that any other mobile OS.
Screw the first commenter, keep the starbucks machine running and post.
WHY ARRINGTON TELLS YOU BULLSHIT ABOUT APPLE “SUCCESS”
Despite a looming recession in North America, financial crises in rich nations, and soaring food prices in poor countries, worldwide shipments of cell phones grew 14 percent year-over-year in Q1 2008, according to a report released on Friday.
The growth rate was higher than at any time in 2007 and was due in large part to surging demand in Asia, Africa and the rest of the emerging world, according to the report from Strategy Analytics.
Roughly 282 million cell phones were shipped in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 247.2 million in the same quarter last year.
The big winners were South Korean handset vendors LG and Samsung, which grew the most, while the big losers were Motorola, Apple, and Sony Ericsson. Market leader Nokia held its ground for the most part.
“Volume-based handset vendors with broad geographical range prospered while the value players took a hit because their core markets are Western Europe, North American and Japan,” said Bonny Joy, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.
Former number two handset maker Motorola, which has about 10 percent market share, is now in danger of losing its hold on the number three slot to LG, which now has 9 percent market share.
Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola showed weakness on both the price-conscious “volume” side of the market and the high-end “value” side of the market.
“The future is bleak for Motorola because they don’t have products to even maintain their 10 percent share,” Mr. Joy said.
Apple, which operates exclusively on the value side, showed significant weakness. After three quarters of growth, the iPhone maker’s global market share fell for the first time ever from 0.7 percent in Q4 2007 to 0.6 percent in Q1 2008.
The Cupertino, California-based company shipped 1.7 million iPhones worldwide in Q1 2008, down sharply from 2.3 million in Q4 2007. The 26 percent decline places it in a similar performance category to Sony Ericsson (28 percent), and Motorola (33 percent).
“Apple’s numbers are not as bad as they seem because of seasonality and softness in its markets,” Mr. Joy said. “But the price of the iPhone is an issue in Europe, and I think U.S. consumers are waiting for the 3G iPhone.”
London-based Sony Ericsson is also losing ground. Its shipment growth has nosedived from 64 percent to 2 percent due in large part to brand fatigue, according to the report.
Wow, you’re clearly an idiot. Of course things slowed down in Q1 2008…why would people buy an iPhone when they know the 3G is on the way? I’m sure the story will be similar for the Q2 numbers. I did enjoy the characterization of how Apple’s market share had slowed, “for the first time ever”, neglecting the fact that they’ve only been in this business for less than a year.
The rest of these guys are going to get their ass kicked in the smartphone market, and increasingly, that’s the market that will count.
Watch and see.
Wow, 800k units a month! If anyone can do it, (along with their other business) Foxcon can.
There is not one remaining North American SMT assembly plant that can touch that volume. Good thinking USA! Keep up the good work building social networks, insurance companies, strip malls, and MLM plans.
Per week! Yikes.
I’m still rockin that iPhone 1.0 and loving it.
Things slowed down (original iPhone sales) in Q1 2008 because Apple stopped making them, and ran all existing stocks dry. (Anyone who follows Apple would know this). In early-to-mid May, AT&T stores in the US began to run out of stock. By the end of May, the original iPhone 2.5G was completely out of stock, everywhere in the US at both AT&T and Apple stores.
Very wisely, Apple stopped production of original iPhones, even though iPhone 3G had not yet been announced. Demand was sufficient to sell all existing units in the channel so that Apple wouldn’t be left holding the bag on 2.5G units once 3G was made available. Also very smart, because by the time iPhone 3G became available, it was well more than a month (see below) after iPhone 2.5Gs had been purchased and activated (so: past the return period). And as a result, nobody who bought an iPhone 2.5G near the “transition” could complain that Apple had immediately come out with a better model.
iPhone 3G was announced on June 9th at the Apple Developer Conference Keynote by Steve Jobs, after there had already been no iPhone sales for at least 2 weeks… because all existing stock had run dry. iPhone 3G didn’t ship until July 11th.
That means that for approximately 8 weeks from mid-May until July 11th, there were no iPhone 2.5G sales in the US, and although some remained in stock in Europe, this was a relatively small amount.
SO: THIS was why Apple’s market share temporarily (and this will be a one-time only event) “slowed” for cell phones in Q1 2008 and why their sales showed “weakness”. And like I said, anyone who knows anything about Apple knows this.
Wow, 800K a week !!!
If only the damn thing (the iPhone) had a ringer that one can hear and my wife could send me SMS that I actually hear
BTW, this ramp up in production has caused the quality to suffer. I have seen several iPhones with minor defects like scratches around the dock connector and on the back plastic knicks and stuff. Kinda sucks to have a flawed iPhone out of the box.
cracks seem pretty widespread over here:
http://forums.m...ad.php?t=525177
The Perfect Storm:
Apple sells a record number of IPhones
Sales cannibalize IPods
IPhones revealed to have numerous defects due to manufacturer greed
Steve Jobs really is terminally ill.
Apple @80 and downward.
As you can see, I am shorting Apple. My only regret is that I didn’t short SBUX a couple of months ago.
Good luck on that perfect storm, hater!
But haters are always losers, so you’re probably wrong.
If you’re an Android dev and haven’t switched to iPhone, start switching NOW!
Can apple sell 800000 iphones a week?
It looks like they can sell that many in 22 countries. All I hear is that they are still hard to get. Which means that they are selling faster than Apple’s ability to restock.
ATT is saying 2 weeks out for order fulfillment! You bet they are shipping 800,000 /week!
good
Very good. Thanks.
is saying 2 weeks out for order fulfillment.
Good luck on that perfect storm, hater
Свобода слова на блоге – это всегда хорошо! Главное, чтобы общественности было что автору сказать