[ad_1]
We will see many more of Appleis (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhones next year, as the company apparently plans to increase production.
On Tuesday, Nikkei Asia reported that the powerful technology company aims to make up to 96 million of its signature phones in the first half of next year. It cited as sources “several people familiar with the matter.” If your number is accurate, it would represent an annual production increase of almost 30%.
Image source: Getty Images.
According to sources in the article, the dramatic increase is due to an increase in demand for the company’s popular phones due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many people around the world are using their phones more thanks to mandatory or self-imposed lock regulations that keep them in place and push them to find avenues of entertainment or communication.
The production increase would involve more than just the iPhone 12 line recently launched by Apple. Sources for the article said the company would also churn out the older iPhone 11 and SE models in this build round, presumably to meet growing demand from more budget-oriented consumers.
According to Nikkei, a tentative full-year forecast that Apple has provided to its suppliers suggests it is targeting total production of up to 230 million iPhones in 2021. If reached, that number would be 20% higher than the 2019 count.
If the vast majority of those phones were shipped, they would mark a reversal of a recent Apple trend. In both 2018 and 2019, their total smartphone shipments decreased from previous years. Even in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, that metric had been trending downward: shipments declined 1% year-over-year in the first nine months of 2020.
[ad_2]
