Celebrate international iPhone manufacturing day (you can’t)

No one outside of Apple in Cupertino probably knows the actual date, so no one can celebrate it, but all the smoke signals say that probably pretty soon someone in the Apple spaceship HQ pressed their finger on the big ‘start manufacturing the next iPhone now’ button.

Or at least test the assembly line.

iPhones, assemble!

There are two main reasons to think that date, which no one celebrates though perhaps they should, is coming round again:

Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO, Ross Young, usually turns out to have accurate insight into what Apple is doing display-wise. Now he’s suggesting Apple will begin display production for the new iPhone 16 series in June. These smartphones are expected to offer larger displays, up to 6.9-inches. They are also expected to be brighter than before.
Apple COO, Jeff Williams, has allegedly met with TSMC president CC Wei to secure Apple silicon processor production using 2nm process technology. Reports claim Apple wants to secure all the 2nm chips TSMC can manufacture, which bodes well for Macs, iPhones, and iPads, all of which use these processors. Though somewhat undermining my narrative, production of these chips won’t start until next year. All the same, when both COO Williams and CEO, Tim Cook have both paid visits in recent months, something is probably taking place. In the short term, Apple will have needed to secure orders of TSMC’s third gen 3nm chips, which are just about to appear.
Both speculations appear as the usual rash of dodgy iPhone chassis images once again begin to appear online. These seem to show a dedicated camera shutter button, vertical camera module and potentially smaller MagSafe components. At least some of these devices are expected to end up being even thinner than an iPad Pro – despite delivering similar battery life.

Some fires emit smoke

These smoke signals suggest Apple is about to ‘go live’ in iPhone component manufacture.

Think about all the elements packed inside these devices – from the chassis to the memory to the processor, display, Wi-Fi radio – and it’s easier to understand that each one of these parts needs to be manufactured before final iPhone assembly begins.

The lead time for Apple’s smartphone doesn’t just comprise final assembly, it extends to the manufacture of all those individual components, including the time it takes to mass test these things and get them to where they need to be.

Within that context it’s not so simple to determine exactly when international iPhone manufacturing day should be deemed to take place. It’s likely some components are already being manufactured, while raw materials will have either been ordered or will already be in the process of being recycled toward the Great Task.

All in all, its easier to think the task has already begun – though the numbers of devices Apple chooses to order its manufacturing partners in China and India to produce will almost certainly reflect the reception the company receives at WWDC.

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