iPhone 5 factory churning out 4.5m phones per month
Reports suggest Apple's Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is blasting out 150,000 phones per day -- that's 4.5 million iPhones in September.
The iPhone 5 machine is fired up in full effect. Reports suggest Apple's Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is blasting out 150,000 phones per day, according to DigiTimes -- that's 4.5 million iPhones in September.
That's more than 18 million iPhones before the end of the year, if our calculations are correct. And that's not counting other manufacturers also contracted to Apple.
It's not clear whether the phones flying out of factories are the iPhone 5 or the rumoured cheaper version, whispered to be called the iPhone 4S.
Hopefully the troubled Foxconn has got over its recent problems, with accusations flying of poor working conditions, health hazards for staff and an explosion on the iPad 2 assembly line that killed three workers.
New iPhones have traditionally arrived in June at Apple's annual WWDC event for software developers. But this year Apple chose to focus on software, announcing iOS 5, iCloud and Lion but keeping schtum about the next iPhone. Since then the tension has ratcheted up to ear-popping levels, with rumours and gossip flying.
Now we know some of you are sick of hearing about the iPhone 5 -- and it isn't even out yet -- but it remains the most popular search term by a significant margin for readers coming to our humble site, so we're duty bound to bring you all the details we can about the hotly anticipated phone.
The latest titbit to sneak out from under the Apple news blockade is a photo apparently taken with an iPhone 5, perhaps using the phone's 8-megapixel camera. Meanwhile, an Apple employee reportedly lost an iPhone 5 prototype after a few bevies.