A report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News claims that Foxconn (Apple’s partner supplier) is preparing for mass production of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 this month and the 5.5-inch model is set to enter mass production in mid-August
The report claims that Foxconn is looking to hire an extra 100,000 workers presumably to help deal with the high demand for upcoming handsets. Manufacturing is usually the limit on sales with iPhone launches: almost every recent iPhone model has sold out when they launch (one exception is the 5C, which has had very poor sales according to almost all analysts). The report also claims Pegatron (another of Apple’s suppliers) is preparing to hire roughly 10,000 workers for the Apple order.
Apple is expected to launch both handsets this year, although there have been several reports claiming the 5.5-inch model is experiencing manufacturing problems and might be delayed until next year. Given that there is a month delay between the production start of the 4.7-inch model and the 5.5-inch model, Apple either believes the 5.5-inch model won’t sell well or the company is intending to do a staggered release.
