“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.