Apple is lining up suppliers for its annual update to the iPad and iPhone, according to several reports in Asian business journals.
The Taiwan-based DigiTimes, which frequently breaks news from the Apple supply chain, reported Friday that Apple has doubled the number of suppliers it uses for some iPad components and told them to begin production in late February.
Mass shipments will then begin in April, the report said. That would coincide with the one-year anniversary of the iPad, when Apple is expected to release the next generation of the path breaking tablet.
Equally anticipated is the iPhone 5, which looks to be the first to launch simultaneously on both AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the US.
Given the astronomical sales, Apple is striking a hard bargain with component suppliers. It has lined up famous Asian manufacturers like Foxconn and Epistar to produce parts with an eye toward launching "in the summer at the earliest," according to a Chinese-language report cited by DigiTimes.
Apple sold a record 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, double its year-ago pace. It never comments on what its spokespeople term "rumors and speculation."
Source : New York Post
Original content : Next iPad on track for spring, new iPhone to launch in summer
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