The popularity of the inexpensive iPhone SE appears to have surprised Apple, which has reportedly significantly increased its chip orders for the handset in 2016’s second quarter.
According to the Taiwan-based DigiTimes, which claims to have learned this news from “industry sources”, Apple had previously intended to manufacture 3.5 million to 4 million units during the quarter. However, the news outlet adds, orders have since been revised to over 5 million.
Apparently, Apple will likely make a similar number of iPhone SE chip orders for the third quarter – which suggests that the company expects continually high demand for the 4-inch handset.
On the other hand, Apple is said to have slowed its pace of iPhone 6S orders, the high-end smartphone market’s decelerating growth having encouraged the Cupertino giant to pay more attention to the mid-range and entry-level segments.
The main claim of this new report is in line with a brief mention in a Barron’s story, published in mid-April, that iPhone SE production was “ramping”. The iPhone SE was announced on March 21 and is priced at just $399 for the 16GB model and $499 for the 64GB variant.