Did Quanta just confirm a second-gen iPhone?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 29 May 2007 18:25

Your IT - Mobility

Rumors, reports and now a seeming confirmation that Quanta will also be building the Apple iPhone sees Quanta’s statement point to a second generation model, which another report suggests could come with a different case design.
It’s no surprise to see the stock of Taiwanese computer and cell phone manufacturer Quanta having risen on the rumor they had won the bid to build iPhones for Apple, especially after they fell for Apple when Engadget’s mistaken original iPhone delay report came out last week.

Quanta and Apple already enjoy a strong relationship, with Quanta building both MacBooks and iPods for Apple to sell worldwide, although Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reported to be building the first batch of iPhones due to arrive in the US market by the end of June.

Reports suggest Quanta has received an order for 5 million iPhones which are to be shipped in September, and if the report in Digitimes is correct, which reports that the ‘new’ iPhone will “be similar in function to those from  Foxconn but with a different outer design to fit different markets”.

Presumably this could entail a 3G or even 3.5G HSDPA iPhone for European markets due to get the iPhone by the end of the year, or even the addition of more memory – imagine a 16Gb or even 32Gb iPhone, unlikely though those will be this year mainly due to the high cost of 16 or 32Gb of flash memory.

Quanta initially offered no comment on the rumors and reports that it had secured the right to also manufacture iPhones, but since then, Quanta has made a statement in the news section of their website entitled: Quanta Computer Address News Report on " Quanta Receive iPhone Order".

Here Quanta answer the question, did “Quanta receive iPhone order?”.

Their response is: “Quanta and Apple are building a tighter than ever relationships. Quanta not only manufactures NB and iPod for Apple, but also may have receive the order to make the second generation of the Apple iPhone. iPhone is a smartphone based mobile, and the second generation model shipment is expected in September 2007 with forecast of 5 million units in 2008”.

So, is Quanta’s iPhone a true upgrade to the original iPhone, with faster connection speeds for European markets, along with a different case design as Digitimes reports?

Or is it simply a statement that Quanta will be the second manufacturer of iPhones, with the bit about ‘second generation’ being slightly lost in translation?

Of course, Apple will never say, and if Quanta has said the wrong thing, they’ll certainly be much more careful about what they say in the future.

So, as per usual, we’ll just have to wait and see what the first iPhone brings, and engage in plenty of fantastic speculation on what will appear in the European iPhone until it launches and is on store shelves!