Apple Ordered 4 Million New iPhones for Q2 2009?

[MacRumors]

Slashphone recaps a ChinaTimes / Commercial Times report which claims that Apple has placed an order for 4 million units of the next generation iPhone. Per Slashphone's summary:

According to its insider news, Apple has already ordered 4 million units of new iPhones and expected to receive the shipment by end of this quarter. These iPhones might be a combination of 3 new models, with one only supports EDGE wireless data connection, another one for 3G wireless data connection and one model made for China market (for China’s TD-SCDMA network?). There will not be iPhone Nano and the new iPhone 2009 will be similar to the current iPhone 3G, according to the report.

China Times had may have somewhat accurately predicted the original iPhone's production in 2007. The possibility of multiple versions of the next iPhone has been raised in an earlier analyst report with the possibility of a high-end and low-end model.

Apple is rumored to be revising its iPhone this summer with the 2009 WWDC in June being the likely announcement venue.

Article Link: Apple Ordered 4 Million New iPhones for Q2 2009?

[Apple Ink]

Er... 'similar to iPhone 3G' in what sense... looks or innards as well???

And this whole Edge and 3G manifestations sounds about bogus to me.. unless they are planning to sell Edge without contract.... ?!?

[Saladinos]

If they do bring the EDGEphone back, its got to be cheap. Not only that, but if they can make it as thin as an iPod touch, I think it'll be a hit.

[yorkshire]

This info is so vague, hopefully we'll see something more specific soon.

[AAPLaday]

A cheaper edge only version makes more sense than a smaller nano. How much smaller could they make it and still have it keep its usability?

[Zuwxiv]

Metal backing, maybe a little more computational power, louder speakers than the original iPhone, and I'll replace mine. Contract's up in a couple months anyway.

Little better battery would be nice, as would FM radio and a nicer camera. Front-facing camera for video conferencing is not going to happen, at least not without a premium monthly charge.

[JDee]

It is vague - I'm definitely going for the higher end one!

Saved up for it now.

[Minimum91]

Originally Posted by Saladinos

If they do bring the EDGEphone back, its got to be cheap. Not only that, but if they can make it as thin as an iPod touch, I think it'll be a hit.

Exactly! In my country 3G is non-existent thing anyway. I get 3G like 1 time a day at one specific place for 5 minutes and then its gone.
Don't really care for 3G. Edge does a fine job for receiving emails and twitter.

[timp123]

Originally Posted by Apple Ink

Er... 'similar to iPhone 3G' in what sense... looks or innards as well???

If you read the google translation of china times it says "looks similar to the original iPhone".

[Roller]

Originally Posted by Apple Ink

Er... 'similar to iPhone 3G' in what sense... looks or innards as well???

I don't care much if it looks similar to the current 3G (though I still think the original iPhone looks better), but it needs to have significantly better hardware (camera, processor, etc.) to keep up, especially with the Palm Pre.

[timp123]

The translation also keeps saying something about the camera and how it works well with the light, I don't know if that means it will have a light or if it works better in different light levels..

Hopefully the camera will be a big improvement over the current one anyway

[SactoGuy18]

I do think the 3rd gen iPhone will sport at least two important improvements: much improved battery life and much improved cellphone reception.

[wackymacky]

So where is the new camera and the magnetometer etc?

Pluss taking out 3G? Wouldn't think it would save much money per unit when needing a seperate assembly line and packaging etc would be needed for the edge only phone.

[AAPLaday]

I think those 5mp cameras that were talked about the other day will be for the top of the line iPhone. The edge version will get the 3.2 ones possibly.

[igazza]

silver zinc battery will be nice

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by wackymacky

So where is the new camera and the magnetometer etc?

Pluss taking out 3G? Wouldn't think it would save much money per unit when needing a seperate assembly line and packaging etc would be needed for the edge only phone.

That is true, but if the place you wanted to sell these other phones didn't have a viable UTMS-based 3G network and wasn't allowing WiFi, you might consider it, if the sales numbers looked to be high enough.

I can't see Apple reintroducing a phone tech that it walked away from a year ago.

[ipoppy]

No way that EDGE will be on its own. EDGE is useless; its just way too slow to the point that you can't make a use out of it. I hope original iPhone owners will agree. Unless that iPhone EDGE will land in China and make them happy, but I can't say if Chinese got good EDGE network over there, since my guess is that there is no 3G at all.
This new iPhone will be similar to 3G but hopefully they won't forget put front camera (behind screen) for my iChat AV there

[twoodcc]

looking forward to seeing the new iPhone. hope it's good

[jqc]

Originally Posted by wackymacky

So where is the new camera and the magnetometer etc?

Pluss taking out 3G? Wouldn't think it would save much money per unit when needing a seperate assembly line and packaging etc would be needed for the edge only phone.

The "cheap" wouldnt necessarily come from a a significantly lower price for the phone itself, but in the cheaper data plan. I live in NYC, have had the original iphone since day 1. Edge is a little slow but fine for everyday use. Had the 3G for a week, 3G was faster but not not up to Apple/ATT's claims, and reception was spotty. Enough that I went back to my original as I couldnt justify an extra $10 a month. If they came out with an EDGE only phone, I'd upgrade in a second, as i suspect many in non-3G areas would as well.

OR: have one phone and have AT&T give us option for EDGE only plan...Id be happy with that.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by igazza

silver zinc battery will be nice

Has that tech evolved enough to hit production yet? A compact high-end device, like the iPhone, seems to be an ideal place for those batteris.

PROS
- 40% more usage per charge
- Last longer
- Not prone to catch fire like Lithium-Ion since they are water based

CONS
- Much higher cost
- Possibility for leaking as they are water based

On top of that, ZPower is funded by Intel and there is word that ZPower will be making batteries for a major notebook maker in 2009.

• http://www.zpowerbattery.com/
• http://www.zpowerbattery.com/pdf/IDF...0-%20Final.pdf

[Bevz]

mmm... A little bit of smoke and mirrors with a slight hint of truth probably... IMHO

I agree with some of the other posters... If this story has any grain of truth in it it's likely to be that iPhone Edge will be brought back and sold unlocked, this makes sense at some stage if apple are truly serious about making any more headway into the mobile market; As for the 3G version, i think that'll see the usual memory bump, a better camera is clearly on the cards and a few extra bells and whistles (I'm preying the magno rumor is true!) including improved GPU (for better gaming; that's my prediction) to entice people into the locked contracts.

Whichever way; June/July will be a fun time

[iPhoneNYC]

Apple does a great job of building expectation. that article says basically nothing, is incredibly vague but it does that old Palavian trick: mention new iPhones and I get ready to buy. That said, is Apple trying to bring forth a more expensive super model but also offer new lower price point Edge only models?

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by jqc

The "cheap" wouldnt necessarily come from a a significantly lower price for the phone itself, but in the cheaper data plan. I live in NYC, have had the original iphone since day 1. Edge is a little slow but fine for everyday use. Had the 3G for a week, 3G was faster but not not up to Apple/ATT's claims, and reception was spotty. Enough that I went back to my original as I couldnt justify an extra $10 a month. If they came out with an EDGE only phone, I'd upgrade in a second, as i suspect many in non-3G areas would as well.

OR: have one phone and have AT&T give us option for EDGE only plan...Id be happy with that.

The only claim was "twice as fast", and that didn't even specify what was twice as fast as it was just one of Apple's simple marketing posters. The WiFi speed stayed the same, the CPU speed the same though it was clocked a little higher in the firmware.

I think that saying that 3G was twice as fast as EDGE as a general rule is more than lenient. Especially when every other cellphone manufacturer advertising the theoretical speed of the radios, not a relative speed. For instance, you'll see their 3G listed as 3.6Mbps or 7.2Mbps.

NYC was(is) was of those cities that were just too congested for the number of iPhone buyers, but that isn't Apple's fault, it's AT&T's. I've heard plenty of reports of the cell signal and 3G speeds getting remarkably better all of a sudden, one day. That may be the case with the areas you travel, too, so I wouldn't make up your mind yet that EDGE is as far as you ever want to go with a cellular radio speed.

[yvesm007]

That is bad news, because i hoped for a almost complete revision (NOT screen size or so, but camera, speed, graphics, battery...)
But...
Still hoping!

[GregA]

Originally Posted by Apple Ink

And this whole Edge and 3G manifestations sounds about bogus to me.. unless they are planning to sell Edge without contract.... ?!?

That kind of makes sense. A 2G phone chip is very cheap hardware - perhaps they'll sell an edge phone outright, and replace the iPod Touch entirely?

Now... merge that with some VoIP apps....