According to a new report from the Commercial Times, Apple supplier Pegatron is gearing up to start mass-producing the iPhone 6. The production is expected to kick off in the second quarter of this year at its Kunshan, China-based plant.
The newspaper says that the manufacturer has already begun recruiting workers in China, and has even opened up a new factory space, in an effort to prepare for large orders from Apple. The new handset is expected to debut later this year…
Here’s the report from the Commercial Times, via Reuters:
Taiwan’s Pegatron Corp, which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad, is opening up new factory space and recruiting workers in China to meet orders to manufacture the new iPhone 6, Commercial Times reported.
Production would begin in the second quarter, the newspaper said on Tuesday, citing sources which it did not identify. It did not give a timeline for when the phone would arrive in stores.
The outlet adds that Hon Hai, or Foxconn, will be the other primary manufacturer of the new phone. The information lines up with a January report from Liberty Times, which said that Foxconn and Pegatron would be splitting iPhone 6 production.
iPhone 6 concept by Martin Hajek
Pegatron has long been a maker of Apple products, but it has typically been a secondary partner. For instance, Apple picked it to handle smaller iPhone 5c orders while Foxconn was chosen to produce the bulk of its 5s orders. So the change is notable.
We know little about the so-called iPhone 6, other than that it’s believed to have a larger, higher resolution display and a thinner profile. We don’t expect to see it before the fall, but there have been a handful of reports claiming it could launch sooner.