Apple’s 4.7 inch model of the long-rumoured iPhone 6 is scheduled to hit production lines as early as next week by Foxconn, a major manufacturing partner of Apple, claims a new report.
Economic Daily News of Taiwan, without citing sources, reports that the 4.7-inch will enter mass production stage in third week of July, while the larger phablets version will hit production stage only in the second week of August.
Foxconn is said to be looking to hire about 100,000 employees to be deployed in the production of iPhone 6 as Apple has presumed that the demand for the 4.7-inch version would be comparatively higher than the 5.5 inch variant.
The company, which is expected to use robots dubbed Foxbots for production of Apple’s next flagship smartphone, is said to be deploying them for a few minor processes like polishing, locking screws, etc.
Apple’s another manufacturing partner Pegatron is also said to be prepping assembly lines and employ 10,000 people additionally for the production of iPhone 6.
Apple is expected to unveil both devices by the end of this year, however, there seems to be some challenges in manufacturing the 5.5 inch phablet model like the in-cell touch panel technology and the colour unevenness in metal casing.
Though both models have these common problems, they are more obvious on the bigger variant. Several forecasts including reports from Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities say that the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 may not see the daylight until 2015.
Some sources expect Apple to release the 4.7 inch model on September 25 or September 19 tentatively. With technical difficulties in production and delay in production until August, it seems that the rumours might be true about the launch of the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 rescheduled to early 2015.
