Apple suppliers eyeing strong quarter from iPhone 5

Panel supplier TPK Holdings and camera lens provider Largan Precision are both expecting solid revenue for the current quarter thanks to the upcoming iPhone 5.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer

Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.

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Lance Whitney

Sept. 20, 2011 5:45 a.m. PT

2 min read

Apple's suppliers are already profiting from the successor to the iPhone 4. Apple

The iPhone 5 has yet to hit the market, but at least two Apple's suppliers are already seeing strong sales by delivering parts for the new phone, according to Taiwan Economic News.

Operating at full steam to make the iPhone 5's touch screens, TPK Holdings brought in record revenue of more than 11.1 billion Taiwan dollars ($371 million) in August, down a bit from July but up 101 percent from a year ago. Chief Financial Officer Freddie Liu attributed the sales surge to booming shipments of touch panels for the iPhone 4, but "implied" that the company has also been shipping panels for the iPhone 5, according to the news site.

Liu expects sales for the current quarter to hit a record high and then peak in the fourth quarter at the Taipei, Taiwan-based company.

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Largan Precision, which makes the iPhone camera lens, saw its August revenue reach 1.46 billion Taiwan dollars, a gain of 25 percent from the same month last year. The Taichung City, Taiwan-based company said that sales growth got a shot in the arm from higher shipments of 8-megapixel lens modules. The iPhone 5 will reportedly sport the higher 8-megapixel lens, a boost from the 5-megapixel lens currently found in the iPhone 4.

Largan's third-quarter sales are expected to grow 15 percent from the record high of 4.1 billion Taiwan dollars seen a year ago as the new 8-megapixel lenses account for almost 20 percent of its overall shipments, added Taiwan Economic News.

With the iPhone 5 rumored to hit the market sometime in early October, Apple is reportedly aiming to have 5 million to 6 million phones on hand by the end of September, prompting the device's major supplier, Foxconn Electronics, to squeeze out around 150,000 units per day.