Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, he of the strong track record of correctly predicting Apple’s future product plans, says Apple’s much-rumored “iPhone 5C” is on track for better production numbers than it’s higher-price sibling, the “iPhone 5S” for this quarter, as the latter is facing some yield issues related to a new fingerprint sensor.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo […] said in a note on Monday that Apple is expected to ship 8.4 million “iPhone 5C” units in the current September quarter. But difficulties in building the top-of-the-line “iPhone 5S” will reportedly limit that device to just 5.2 million units for the quarter.
Kuo does expect Apple to be able to increase their “iPhone 5S” shipments by 438% in the holiday 2013 quarter, reaching 28 million units in the three-month span. Kuo says that would put the “iPhone 5S” ahead of the “iPhone 5C” in terms of shipments for the quarter. He expects shipments of the new plastic iPhone to increase 122% quarter-over-quarter to 18.7 million units in the December frame.
“Despite yield rate issues with fingerprint sensor module and casing, a timetable ensuring improvement has been established, which eases our concerns over 5S production,” Kuo said. “We hold a positive view on growth momentum along the iPhone supply chain, for which we expect a jump from August followed by sustained growth into September and (the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013).”
The “iPhone 5C” is expected to be easier and quicker to produce directly out of the starting gate, as the device is expected to feature basically the same components as the current iPhone 5. The main difference will be the plastic casing. Kuo says Foxconn begun producing an “iPhone 5C” model that supports TDD-LTE for compatibility with carrier China Mobile in August.
Apple is expected to introduce its new iPhone lineup on September 10th. Kuo has also said he believes the “iPhone 5C” will take the place of the iPhone 5, with the iPhone 4S living on as Apple’s low-end model.
Recently, well-sourced analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, iMore editor in chief Rene Ritchie, 9to5Mac reporter Mark Gurman, and MG Seigler of TechCrunch have added additional weight to the idea of a gold iPhone, which is practically confirmed at this point.
The device is also expected to feature up to 128GB of storage, significant under-the-hood upgrades (including a new custom Apple A7 chip with 64-bit processing), dual-LED Flash, a larger battery, a vastly improved camera, and more. The device is expected to launch sometime this fall, with the most recent reports suggesting it will be unveiled at a September 10 media event.
