Apple Increases Chip Orders; New Products Launch Imminent

Digitimes is reporting that Apple has increased its order for chips indicating that the company is about to start manufacturing new products according to information from sources at its supply chain partners

“IC orders placed by Apple for the third quarter have nearly doubled over the prior quarter,” Cage Chao and Jessie Shen report for Digitimes. “Thanks to the upcoming rollouts of new iPhone and iPad devices, overall chip shipments to Apple are set to grow significantly in the second half of 2013.”

According to the report:

Overall IC shipments for iOS devices in the second half of 2013 are expected to account for as high as 70% of the total for the year, the sources indicated.

Apple started to reduce its chip orders in the fourth quarter of 2012, and maintained the slow pace of orders until second-quarter 2013, the sources said. Shipments for iPhone components from the IC supply chain, for example, fell to about 20 million units quarterly during the period, the sources noted.

However, with a new model set to launch, IC shipments for iPhones will ramp up to 40 million units in the third quarter, the sources predicted.