Apple is planning to build approximately 95 to 96 million iPhones in the first half of 2021 according to Japan’s Nikkei news agency (via Reuters). If this comes to fruition, Apple will have increased its iPhone production by 30% on an annual basis. Apple has asked its supply chain to produce more units in the current iPhone 12 lineup which includes the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. All four phones support 5G and are powered by the 5nm A14 Bionic chipset. With 11.8 billion transistors inside, the A14 Bionic delivers enhanced performance with improved energy consumption.
Older iPhone models that Apple is requesting more production of from suppliers include last year’s iPhone 11 and the budget priced iPhone SE (2020). There is concern that a shortage of parts could hold Apple back from hitting its 6 and 12 month targets. Early this year, some of Apple’s supply chin was forced to temporarily close die to the global pandemic.
Apple reportedly told its suppliers to be ready to produce as many as 230 million iPhones for all of 2021. Not only is the iPhone 12 line the first from Apple to support 5G connectivity, all four phones will work on both sub-6GHz and mmWave signals. The former consists of both low and mid-band spectrum. These signals travel long distances and can penetrate structures easily. What they don’t do is deliver super fast 5G download data speeds. In fact, low-band spectrum like the 600MHz airwaves used by T-Mobile, deliver speeds closer to 4G LTE than the 5G speeds that U.S. consumers are dreaming about. The high band mmWave signals can travel short distances only which is why they are perfect for dense metropolitan cities. They do not penetrate many structures well but can provide zippy fast 5G data speed. T-Mobile is using a combination of low, mid, and high-band signals to offer what some analysts say will eventually be the best 5G service in the country.
