Quanta wins order for 2nd iPhone?

Ready for some good ol' rumor and speculation related to the iPhone? Sure, after all, we're still a few weeks away from the most optimistic of launch dates. Well, try this one on. A second iPhone manufacturer has been added to the mix. Namely, Apple fave Quanta Computer are rumored to be joining Foxconn (Hon Hai) in the development of the uber phone after winning the contract to deliver 5 million units starting in September. Digitimes, citing a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times, says that "The iPhone produced by Foxconn is designated for the US market, and those manufactured by Quanta will be similar in function to those from Foxconn but with a different outer design to fit different markets, the paper quoted sources at Taiwan-based component makers as saying." The story was also carried by Taiwan's other leading financial paper, the Economic Daily News for what it's worth. Quanta has issued a response to the rumor on their English language site stating, "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." What to make of this? Well, the believers amongst you will of course interpret this to mean a 3G iPhone is on the way -- after all, Apple would be testing European patience by delivering a 3G-less phone to the continent in Q4 as originally announced. But that's just speculation on top of rumor which makes an ass out of you and me. Er, or something like that.

Read -- DigiTimes
Read -- Quanta response

[steve @ May 29th 2007 11:01AM]

if you read the sites reporting this story, it is belived that the "second generation" could have just been something that was lost in translation. It is belived that this actually refers to the second manufacturing cycle, or minor changes to meet other countries specific needs. The different outer design? speculation. 3G in a few months? eh, apple isn't that fast. And if they were, they would have squezed it into the stateside release. (though cingular/at&t could have had bandwith issues, and told apple to hold off. but now i'm speculating)

[Matthew @ May 29th 2007 11:03AM]

The first time I read about the 3G iPhone in this article, I thought, what happened to the 2G iPhone?

Then I realized they were talking about cellular connectivity.... not 3rd gen. Am I the only one getting my G's crossed? *shakes head*

[andrew harrison @ May 29th 2007 6:19PM]

at least it doesn't run on PPC G3s

[David L. @ May 29th 2007 11:14AM]

If you read the statement throughly, under #5 they stated "However, the Company would like to reiterate that as general business conduct, the Company will not comment on specific customer,order or any types of confidential information" The news was merely a responce to the media reports, so there's still 50% chance that it's not Quanta.

[Jose @ May 29th 2007 5:23PM]

http://www.quanta.com.tw/Quanta/chinese/allnews/allnews_hot.aspx#

For Whom knows how to read Chinese, Quanta already reply, there will be no second generation iPhone this year, it is only rumors, but they already have the order of iPods, Apple's notebooks and iPhone in a big amount.

[Peter @ May 29th 2007 5:51PM]

If you read the Quantas link, you would see that the portion which Engadget reports as Quantas's response is actually the company's summary of the news reports. The company's actual response is "the Company will not comment on specific customer,order or any types of confidential information." After Engadget's last iPhone rumor mistake, one would think the least Engadget would do was to read a company's statement carefully. Poor journalism, Engadget.

[JeffDM @ May 29th 2007 7:33PM]

Digitimes is so worthless that it's not funny. I'm not sure if they ever were accurate on any of their "scoops".

[cf @ Jul 17th 2007 5:32AM]

Skirts perilously close to stock market manipulation whilst superficially masquerading as journalism.