iPhone 5 Supply Shows Signs of Improving

[Maura]

Most of the news this week has been about Apple’s supply problems with the iPhone 5, with quotes yesterday from Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou saying that he can’t keep up with the demand. Now today, however, AppleInsider reports that according to at least one analyst, there are signs that supply is starting to improve. Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu has written today in a note to investors that according to his own personal checks with Apple’s supply chain, Apple has greatly improved its iPhone 5 production capacity over recent weeks. In fact, Wu is so convinced that Apple is getting on top of the supply issue that he is forecasting that Apple will sell 46.5 million iPhones in total in the December quarter, which would represent a quarter-over-quarter increase from the 26.9 million shipped units in the September quarter. Addressing the supply issue, Wu says that the problem has now shifted to the assembly part of the production process, away from the component area. This is supported by Gou’s recent comments about the iPhone 5 being incredibly difficult to assemble.

Source: iPhone 5 capacity improving, Apple forecast to sell 46.5M phones in Dec. quarter