“Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry) is the contract manufacturer for Apple’s newly launched Mac mini computers, while Asustek Computer is making the iPod shuffle for the vendor, according to sources close to the deals. The Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday that Asustek had secured the orders for both the items,” David Tzeng and Steve Shen report for DigiTimes.
“In addition, Asustek will also start shipping iBook G5 notebooks to Apple in the second quarter of this year. Shipments of the current iBook notebooks totaled about 110,000-120,000 units a month in the fourth quarter last year, the sources noted.”
A chart accompanying the article also shows a nice little tidbit of information: “PowerBook G5 – 2nd quarter 2005”
| Taiwan contract manufacturers for Apple | |||
| Product | Contract maker | Estimated shipment volumes for 2005 | Delivery date |
| iPod shuffle | Asustek | 400k-500k/month | Available now |
| iPod/iPod Photo/iPod Mini | Inventec Appliances | Combined shipments of the three items totaled over 10 million units in 2004 and are expected to increase substantially in 2005. | |
| iBook/iBook G5 | Asustek | 1.3-1.5 million/year (combined shipments of the two series) | iBook G5 to start shipping in 2Q 2005 |
| PowerBook G5 | Quanta Computer | 30k-50k/month | 2Q 2005 |
| Mac mini | Foxconn | >100k/month | Available Jan 22 |
Source: compiled by DigiTimes, January 2005
Sometimes, Asia leaks like a sieve. Remember, too, that Apple has not said there will be a PowerBook G5 in 2nd quarter 2005, which runs from April 1 – June 30 (April 1 is Apple’s birthday, by the way). Of course, Apple hasn’t said there wouldn’t be, either. Also, the “iBook G5” info sticks out like a sore thumb; there could’ve been a mistranslation, a misunderstanding, a simple typo, some other error, or it could be true. Nobody really knows until Apple makes it official.
Finally, note the shipment estimate quantities, especially for the Mac mini which this report shows a total over 1.2 million in the first year. Wonder if they’ll have to ramp that number up a bit?
Full article with more info here.
Q2 Ends June 30th. Hopefully, we’ll see them sooner!
Can’t wait to replace this tired old 1.25GHz G4 PB. Maybe I’ll get my order in now for the daily deliveries of dry ice that I’ll be using as a stand for my BookEndz docking station (although it may make the 23″ Cinema display abit foggy).
Note to Apple: Face the lawyers east and let them go.
i guess this means they are announced at WWDC
Must be the language barrier. Clearly China does not understand a NDA.
That’s the mother of all product rumors.
As The Register said, it could also be a typo. Powerbook G5 is a possibility, even after the “mother of all thermal challenges” quote, but and iBook G5? I somehow find that a bit hard to swallow.
Mtnmann,
Q2 ends March 29th. Q1 just ended. Q3 ends June 30th.
Apple’s fiscal year commences in September, the “holiday” quarter.
Q2 is most likely referring to CALENDAR quarter…not Apple’s fiscal quarter. That means April-June.
I’m a patient man; I can wait until June.
I have to keep telling myself that…
Wait a minute. iBook G5s introduced at the same time as Powerbook G5s???? That doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Methinks there might have been an error made somewhere, possibly due to language barriers or some clerk/keypuncher who does not know what is going on. I certainly certainly certainly DO hope that the G5 powerbook ships Q2 though. I am hanging on with a 667 Tibook and have been waiting for the G5 laptop for over a year and half now. I wonder how this jives in with the “mother of all thermal challenges” comment. Was that possibly a smoke screen to keep sales of current powerbooks from flagging further?
magic word “together” as in iBook G5 and Powerbook G5 released together? I don’t think so.
If the G5 iBook/PowerBook is real, then shipment probably won’t happen until there is a supply of them to sell.
I’m sure that solving thermal issues was challenging. But I’m also sure that if we knew for sure that G5 laptops were coming out in 6 months, Apple couldn’t sell a darn thing for a half-year and the backlog would completely suck for the new product.
How many folks have written that they’ve been waiting (and waiting for a long time) for the G5 laptops on these boards?….
No way. This is someone confusing G4 and G5. iBook G5’s are not going to happen any time soon, even if PowerBooks are.
Magic word “trying”, which explains the PowerBook G5 issue for Apple.
Yes we’d all love to see G5 iBooks and PowerBooks – but baby, you won’t finding me purchasing one of the first ones. I love my new G5 iMac, but even in January, we don’t need to turn on the heat in my office when the G5 is running.
My G4 PowerBook is just fine for road trips, so I’ll wait for the 2nd generation G5 PowerBooks before I put down my money.
Apple… I still love ya, but I did pay $3,000 for my first Mac: a 800mhz flat screen iMac in 2001 and I’ve learned that it’s costly being on the cutting edge. The G4 flatscreen iMac is still a great computer – so we’ll keep it running on the secretary’s desk for a while longer.
I presume that Tiger will run just fine thankyou on a G4 as Steve wouldn’t have introduced a G4 Mac Mini otherwise.
Apple Mac: Stable, secure and intuitiive. We are now 3 years without a virus, without data loss and without a single emergency reboot.
Thank you Apple: Your stuff just works.
Secret Word = efforts…. as in “The efforts of the Apple engineers have really been successful”
Excellent News!
Ive just got rid of my old 500mhz Titanium PowerBook today!
Im gonna be 1st in the que for a G5 PowerBook!!!
THat’s my next computer right there. I wonder what the ghz will be on these machines? Hopefully they can manage a 2ghz, that would be SCHWEEET!
Me13:
Then don’t try and swallow it – God knows Apple tells you not to do that with an iPod shuffle, so why would you try with an iBook G5.
Seriously, trying to eat electrical products of any kind is a bad idea�
As for Mac mini being produced at >100K/month, I should think that’s a massive understatement.
An objective prediction of Mac mini sales in calendar 2005 would be between 2M and 2.5M units, and my personal pitch is at the high end of that range.
I’m guessing pretty close to 280,000 units for this quarter (shortened by the fact that that it doesn’t start to ship for a few weeks), and then 450K for Q3, followed by the back to-school quarter where I have a feeling we’ll see around 600K shipped. The killer quarter will be the holiday quarter this year: Personally, I’m guessing 1.25 million units as Mac mini has affordable present written all over it in every language.
So I would think the guys at FoxConn are going to be running extra shifts before too long.
This is complete bulls&$*. There is no way on God’s green earth that Apple will ship an iBook G5 anywhere close to when they ship the Powerbook G5, unless they want to completely cannibalize their pBook sales.
Magic word: Wall, as in the one the thermal guys at Apple ran into. Don’t expect anything portable with a G5 inside this year, and don’t expect Apple to be stupid enough to let it be an iBook.
who does iMac and PowerMac G5 production? Could this be the typo?
brought to you by “basic” as in basically I won’t expect this to pan out and can be happily surprised if it does.
Take this rumor with a SHAKER of salt. There have been enough “leaks” of products out of Asian suppliers that never arrived.
Arrgg! I had intentions of paying for a new Powerbook (or at least part of it) with my tax return but now…
I’ve never been one to wait for a new model based on a rumor but this is a G5!
Now I need to figure my way out from the rock and proverbial hard place. Any suggestions?
why are some of you so convinced that this (PB G5 this summer) cannot happen. The G5 is in the small enclosures of the Xserve and the iMac already.
Sure it is a challenge but what do you think the engineers are doing over there? Why all this “won’t happen this year” tallk? What is going to change by next year?
I’d be happy to hear an explanation …
This is an obvious typo, there will be dual G4 Powerbooks long before we see a G5 Powerbooks trust me. Heat is still a major issue for the G5 chip and the G4 still has legs in Apples laptop line.
I will Repeat:
There will be dual G4 Powerbooks long before we see a G5 Powerbooks.
Trust me.