Jeffrey Fidacaro with Susquehanna Financial Group has claimed that Apple is prepared to begin assembling CDMA iPhones in December, and will produce 3 million units for a 2011 launch — such phones would obviously be intended for a CDMA carrier like Verizon or Sprint.
Furthermore, as AI reports, Fidacaro expects Apple to crank out 11.6 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of FY 2010, which would be a new record for Apple, and a 39% increase from Q3 in FY 2010.
Such a production schedule would produce between 21 million and 22 million GSM and CDMA iPhones for the quarter. That seems like an awfully ambitious number, as manufacturers struggle to fill orders in Taiwan, Australia, Korea and elsewhere. Additionally, a recent survey suggested that 23% of iPhone owners would switch to Verizon if they could. By Credit Suisse‘s calculations, that represents about 1.4 million customers.
The iPhone was announced in January of 2007. Many have speculated that Apple entered a 4-year agreement with AT&T back then, which would expire sometime in 2011. It’s all guesswork for now, but if the switch will happen next year, it seems Apple will be ready.
TUAWRumor: Apple to build 3 million CDMA iPhones in December originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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