According to industry sources in Taiwan playing roles in
Apple's latest upcoming crown jewel, the device is definitely on track to be
launched by mid-2009 with the first batch estimated to be around five million
units.
Assembly suppliers will begin hardware shipments for the
3rd-generation iPhone starting from May, the sources said. As of recent, we
have begun to see a trickle hardware supplier information for the new device
floating around the net. Thanks to the guys at Digitimes, we may have a
complete list here:
On another note, TSMC and two of its subsidiaries are likely
to benefit from their roles in the manufacturing of the next-generation iPhone.
According to Taiwanese sources, TSMC
itself has likely landed itself a sizable chunk of change with foundry orders for Bluetooth integrated circuits, GSM EDGE
power amplifiers, and the 3.2 megapixel OmniVision CMOS image sensor. The
sensor will undergo wafer-level chip-scale packaging and testing from Xintec
Inc. while VisEra will manufacture its on-chip color filters.
All in all, we can positively withhold the idea that a next-generation
iPhone is real and is currently in the making.
More here.