Apple said to order 24 million iPhone 4Gs

Apple is betting big that its upcoming - and noticeably improved - iPhone 4G will be an instant worldwide hit, according to a report citing Taiwanese parts suppliers. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at DigiTimes says that Cupertino has ordered 24 million units for this year alone from its Chinese assembler, Foxconn. Kuo also provided …

[Webster Phreaky]

1/2 will be available in 30 days as REFURBISHED ...

Yeah face it, Apple's "sweatshops" over there in Red China turn out crap and despite the exaggerated claims of perfection, Apple really has a horrible history of unreliability. Had one of those notorious G3/G4 iBooks, PowerBooks with flaked out LCD's, same goes of MacBooks and Pro's? How bout those short life batts in iPuds and iPhones??

[Antidisestablishmentarianist]

Oh Webby, where have you been?

We thought something awful had happened to you, but I see you're still around and full of the old venom.

Notice I said 'old' venom. G3s? G4s? Powerbooks? History. Surely you can spout about the screens on the 27" iMacs or something, or the DOA ones. You know - current issues.

But perhaps you got out of the Apple supporting game for your local school boards so long ago that you've only your old bitterness to regurgitate back up and froth about. Yum.

Anyway, don't stop. You're the best.

[Wibble]

Interesting extrapolation

So, you had one duff G3 iBook, circa 2000, and therefore everything subsequent from Apple is broken.

Sounds more like religion than logic.

For what it's worth (about three fifths of nothing), I've had a lot of Apple kit since 2005 and it's all been fine; nothing has broken. So as I've had 4 lappies and 2 iPhones, to your 1 broken machine, that makes it a 6 to 1 failure rate. Not bad really. Is this Maffs or Stastistics?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually...

...it makes it about 6 to 5-ish. I'm not a Mac fan myself, but colleagues at work are. Two had those large screen thingies and both had cracks in the corners. One had an iPad which broke (software) as a result of software issues and had a heck of a job getting Apple to fix it, even though it was the result of an Apple recommended update. They also had a MacBook Pro fail on them. We have one Apple user on campus (artwork) and about every year either the PC or the laptop breaks down with something.

On average, I'd say that when the numbers of kit are taken in to account, we have about as many failures with Apple kit as we have with the generic crappy PC kit that we're buying in (manufacturer name withheld, but I have seen its logo interchanged with Apples on a few laptops.)

[Ascylto]

Why, Webster.

It's good to hear from you again.

How was the facility?

Were the nurses nice?

Are you off the medication now?

[richard 69]

webster for prime minister...

the drooling old fool could do a great job in parliament - dragging his club foot through the dark corridors, drooling over the IT departments sandwiches and throwing his own excrement at the pigeons on the roof......what a guy...he's actually working on his own iphone app, but doesn't like to talk about it....

[magnetik]

Yawn

Still bitter about losing your job at Apple eh Webster? Guess time doesn't heal all wounds ..

[Anonymous Coward]

24 Million?

That's a lot of fucking idiots!!

[LaeMing]

Not really!

Approximately 3 billion of us are below average intelligence. That is a big market.

Oh look! Shiny!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The article about Facebook users

and Zuckerberg's opinion of them is over there ----->

[Anonymous Coward]

So far...

... I've avoided the iphone, but I coming up for an upgrade and I'm seriously considering this one.

Why?

Because I can't get the Nokia N900 (they promised a local release in April but it still hasn't arrived), and the HTC Desire is only available on contract from Telstra (in fact Telstra seems to be the sole Aussie distributor of all HTC phones) and I refuse to pay their premium rates.

On the other hand, the iPhone is available everywhere and the pricing fairly reasonable (on a 24 month contract).

I'd much rather the Nokia or HTC handset, but they seem to have forgotten how to make it easy for people to buy their products.

[Mike Bell]

@AC 06:58

"I'd much rather the Nokia or HTC handset, but they seem to have forgotten how to make it easy for people to buy their products."

If you want to "buy" an HTC handset (rather than get locked in with a telco, suffer bastardised branded firmware and end up paying for it anyway after a couple of years) there are plenty of places where you can do that. On the High Street even.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not as many..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/jobs_halo_32.png

Not as many as the 230 million cry-babies like you.

[Anonymous Coward]

awww poor Apple-fearing souls

You can taste the fear!

Loving watching you squirm as Apple takes over the entire mobile computing space while you suffer with you self-inflicted crapware that you cling to.

LOVING IT!!!!!!

[dogged]

If you had half a brain

that'd probably be an upgrade.

a) coherence fail

b) if one clings to "crapware" one did not actually write, how is it self-inflicted?

I bet you're on Facebook.

[Anonymous Coward]

What would be interesting...

... are the figures of those who are upgrading as opposed to new customers ... presumably because they've been taken by the shiny new thing, or because the current iPhone doesn't actually do what they want it to do.

Perhaps that could be Jobs' killer idea, make the new iPad without a camera so that when is released later on with a camera, the sales figures will look great and everyone will believe in the clamouring for Apple goodness, instead of those upgrading because the current version doesn't do what they need to do in order to actually do some reasonable work.

I'd love to see what the Adam does to iPad sales later this year.

[Anonymous Coward]

ppi

Assuming the same screen size as the incumbent iphone, it will mean the screen pixel density of more than 320ppi!

[Anonymous Coward]

AND....

cue the hateposts from the usual suspects

[Anonymous Coward]

playing catch up

Why? Just because Apple may finally catch up to what others have offered for quite a while? I have an 800x600 resolution touch screen phone that is over a year old.

[Ted]

You are not understanding...

Resolution is only one aspect of how good a screen is... you are not understanding that don't have quality graphics since your OS doesn't support it, so visually, your phone looks like an Atari 800 compared to iPhone. also too, the type of screen that you have is a sub par panel, the iPhone is the top display made, so you are missing out if you like crisp graphics.

So we realize you are jealous of iPhone users, but don't spout "specs" that have little bearing on the level of quality you are experiencing. You'll get an iPhone someday, don't worry!

[Stone Fox]

RE: You are not understanding

"the iPhone is the top display made"

Interesting given they use one of the most notoriously cheap and flakey hardware manufacturers for the motherboards.

Ask any A+ engineer or any home PC builder what they think of 'Foxconn' and they'll probably wet themselves laughing.

[Anonymous Coward]

A+ engineer

hahahahaha, are you serious about the A+ engineer comment???

[Neil Stansbury]

Ask any A+ engineer?

As in the CompTIA A+ Certification?

As in the 15 hour course spread over 5 weeks?

What should I ask them?

Whether they can count to 20 without taking their socks off?

Gosh yes - I must remember to seek out an A+ engineer next time - thanks for the tip.

[Anonymous Coward]

15 Hours

All of 15 hours?

Blimey that sounds like a really hard course to take.

[Rob Dobs]

Glib much?

Niel,

OK, so maybe A+ "technician" would be more appropriate word than "engineer". But why the superiority complex? Maybe their upfront training is a joke, but when Harvard is deeding degrees to big donors, what is the real value of higher education? Christ, Bush Jr. came from Ivy league schools and he couldn't even speak in complete sentences. I have met several smart PC tech's and all of them are A+ (even if just for in name only).

Your response seems glib and ignorant. If I want to know what motherboards have a bad failure rate, I would ask several A+ techs who are working with broken PC's on a daily basis on the front lines.

I would even be sure to ask a few of them if I wanted a reliable answer, as each tech can get their own opinons. A bad shipment of equipment, or a personal bitter experience can make a person jaded. When you get an opinion from multiple people who work with these devices, it become more reliable.

That said, the common knowledge I have heard is that FoxConn is total crap, and I would not be shocked at all if they had somewhere in the 25%-50% failure range.

I wonder whom you would think would be a better expert to go ask... an actual computer engineer?? As much as they know about making a circuit, or software program, they tend to know jack-shit about the internals of the PC they work with. Worse they tend to be even more extreme examples of developing opinions and bias based on personal one time experiences, rather than facts and data.

And yes for the record I think Apple is a pretty shitty company, and I don't like the way they, M$ or Google do business, they are all shitty greedy companies that have shown a disdain for their consumers. I urge all the fanbois on all sides of these behemoths to step back and question your fealty to a for profit enterprise that does not represent you, or your interests in ANY way.

The anti - anti-Apple sentiments here seem to indicate a blind allegiance that is beyond reason. Apple is greedy, they are not your friend...

[richard 69]

you're not getting it..

apple have always been a bunch of shits, they've always treated their customers like shite, but apple are like the hot girl at school that spoke to you like shite and laughed at your hair - you still can't stop thinking she's hot and you're dieing to speak to her.....that's apple. us fanboys still go back every time....

also "the common knowledge I have heard" and then "if they had somewhere in the 25%-50% failure range." so if that common knowledge or not?

[Anonymous Coward]

I studied 8 hours total...

Passed both A+ exams and have no engineering degree.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/paris_hilton_32.png

Paris, because it set me back about 100 quid in UK funni monni.

[roundyz]

Who's phone?

My phone is a N900 mate and it kicks-ass. Period.

[Steve Hodson]

I cannot wait...

Competition in the smartphone arena is really hotting up this summer with new Android devices......bring it on Apple!

[Lance 3]

512MB????

If they need to double the RAM to allow multitasking, the OS is full of bloat.

[Chas]

Bullcrap!

Considering that the iPhone 3GS and the 3rd gen iPod touch will support OS 4's multitasking, both of which are blessed with 256 MB of RAM, makes your comment look rather stupid. As Mark Twain said, better to keep your mouth closed and have people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt!

If any other manufacturer have doubled the RAM in their device, pundits would be falling over themselves to praise them. When Apple does it, morons like the OP come out and claim that it's because the OS is "bloated". The utter stupidity of the Great Unwashed never ceases to amaze me.

=:~)

[Lance 3]

BS

You have believed the BS from Steve for too long. A few years ago Apple was still selling computer with 512MB of RAM and now their phone with a stripped down OS requires the same amount? Apple will hinder their version of multitasking like they do with everything else and they will want their new model to handle it better than the current model; regardless of what the hardware is really capable of.

They could have added MMS to the original 2G model and didn't. MMS is part of the same GSM spec that brought GPRS. They did similar things with the 3G model and the new software. The hardware fully capable of supporting the features.

Other manufacturers have supported multitasking on phones with less than 64MB; actually to phones with around 4MB.

The iPhone won't support true multitasking.

Steve says the 3G and earlier that the hardware doesn't support multitasking. What hardware doesn't support it?

[Graham Lockley]

Is it true ?

Rumour has it that it will include the the new 'Vinosity' middleware for turning water into wine. You read it here first folks.

[Jon Double Nice]

Thats actually

a separate app for that from the app for that store

[Matthew Anderson]

Smart my arse

I really, honestly, couldn't give a stuff what they do or how many they order. And then of course I decided to comment so I obviously give a stuff enough to say:

None of these "smart phones" actually work very well. Not so friggen smart if you ask me. They freeze regularly, cannot be used outside in daylight, have a gazillion useless apps and fight it out over who has the most, have "state of the art" touchscreen tech which quite simply is a nightmare to use at least 50% of the time and....

And yet we all clammer over them as if our own brand is the best bit of kit we have ever used. The reality is, if you stop lieing to yourself, is that they are buggy bits of sucky kit that have excellent marketing teams behind them and we all buy into it (OK so you didn't so no need to comment plz).

I have a Nexus 1 and it's shit. Still, after I have paid £800 odd quid + extras over 24 months at least I will feel ripped off enough to never buy another one, ever. Roll on a phone that just, yannow, phones... The rest of the pizazz can be done via my laptop/desktop/paper+pen+ruler+imagination.

[Anonymous Coward]

Missing the point?

Despite what the marketing types tell you, these devices are not meant to replace your laptop/desktop/paper+pen+ruler+imagination, they're meant to be something that gives you as many of the functions in a convenient package.

As David Bailey (you know, the famous photographer) once said when asked which camera was his favourite "Whichever one I have on me". The point being that it doesn't matter how good any particular piece of equipment is, if it's not with you when you need it then it's useless.

For example, when I travel I often want to be able to send and receive e-mails or use the web to check local services. Sure, I could do this with a laptop (big weight penalty if you're flying) or use a cybercafe (insecure). Now I can just take my phone, find somewhere with free wifi (or purchase time locally), VPN to my home server and I'm good to go.

My smartphone has never crashed on me and has only been powered off a handful of times that were dictated by circumstances, so while I'm sorry that yours has given you endless trouble, please try to avoid such sweeping statements.

I've not found the screen to be especially bad in bright sunlight, but living in the UK that's a rare occurrence anyway.

All in a device that weighs a fraction of my laptop and I can carry with me everywhere.

So, no, I'm not deluding myself.

[Matthew Anderson]

Yes deluding yourself

That was the whole point - excellent marketing teams mean you wouldn't know if you are deluding yourself or not. These marketing teams have long term knowledge of how YOU tick and are more interested in a sale than the tech team are in a finished product. Meh - Paranoid Android ;-)

I'm glad however that your iPhone is better than my Nexus, for you anyway -and that you find good use out of it. I find the Nexus fun, but annoying. As a work tool or on the fly email/interwebs access, no thanks. I far prefer the bulk of the laptop and nipping into the nearest pub for 6 pints and some proper access to fiddling about with a phone that does none of the things I really want, with ease.

Lot's of thumbs down but that was to be expected. :-D

[Anonymous Coward]

No, still not deluding myself.

So because you have had a bad experience with your Nexus all smartphones are crap, but because I've not had a bad experience with my phone I'm deluding myself and am just a victim of marketing? Yes, there are bugs and you could describe the OS as "unfinished", but I defy you to name one OS anywhere that has no bugs and could comfortably be described as finished.

Do grow up, there's a good chap.

No, it's not an iPhone, I never said it was.

I too have a laptop and sometimes I take it with me because I can anticipate the requirement for additional screen space or more storage or a better keyboard.

Do you understand yet?

It's not about "better hardware" it's about convenience. My desktop machine craps all over my laptop for ability, but it's simply not practical to take it with me everywhere, so I also have a laptop. For those times when a laptop is impractical I now have a smartphone, before smartphones I carried a PDA and a phone that it could use as a data connection.

Is this going in yet?

The phone doesn't replace the laptop, it just provides some of the functionality in an easier to carry format. For the same reason I have a compact camera that lives in my pocket and goes all over the place, but an SLR when I specifically go out to take pictures.

[Anonymous Coward]

re: smart my arse

You got mugged. Should've got an iPhone.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Smart my arse

"They freeze regularly, cannot be used outside in daylight, have a gazillion useless apps and fight it out over who has the most, have "state of the art" touchscreen tech which quite simply is a nightmare to use at least 50% of the time and...."

Mine can be used outside in daylight, has several very useful applications and also touchscreen. It's not a nightmare to use at any time and...

[OrsonX]

daylight legability

no problem seeing my iPhone 3G screen even in the brightest sunshine

[richard 69]

just to correct you

"freeze regularly" - err simply no.

"cannot be used outside in daylight" - i use mine in the outdoors all the time, not just in the burger shop.

"have a gazillion useless apps" - you do realise that you can download the apps that you actually want/need? the phone doesn't come with a gazillion apps, and you can delete.

"touchscreen tech which quite simply is a nightmare to use at least 50% of the time" - ok, now you're being daft. have you actually used one? or are your fingers too podgy from the burgers?

"they are buggy bits of sucky kit" - they are not perfect, but what is? they fulfill a need. go buy a proper one, use it, enjoy it, relax, think about more salads.....

[Bob Merkin]

Feh.

I was all excited to get a 4G until that douchebag at Gizmodo had to go and ruin the surprise. I'll just wait until the 5Gs come out now.

[Putonghua73]

Secondary Market

Wonderful news because when / if I return to the UK (am currently in China), I can buy a 3G / 3GS on the secondary market for cheaper because a lot of people will no doubt upgrade to the next iteration (after 'misplacing' my phone in a club after 4 days of arriving here).

My 3G 8G iPhone was suitable for my needs, and is still suitable for my needs (unless, I'm tempted by the HTC Desire) - so the frenzied rush for the iPhone 4G should mean more 3G / 3GS models on the secondary market.

[OrsonX]

buy a 3G / 3GS on the secondary market for cheaper...

...well you'd think, but I recently fancied buying a HTC Hero just to mess with. I thought I could get one for £10 on eBay... but they are still £200+ pounds and that's with this years upgraded HTC Legend available for around the same price. While I was at it I checked out the prices of the iPhone.. no bargains to be had!

>In fact some phones were selling for MORE than retail value, NUTS!!!!

[Stephen 10]

Is the name misleading or is it actually 4G

I know that Apple use this for their own generations of products but in the mobile phone world 3G and 4G have actual, globally understood meanings. The new HTC EVO 4G is, I understand, an actual 4G network phone. I'm pretty sure this 4G is only 3G - advertising standards confusion anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

No

You're mixing up what some lazy forth-rate "technology journalists" call a product, and its actual name. Go on, ask about an upgraded "iTouch", too, please.

[MarkOne]

Clearly...

Apples haven't seen the new HTC Android 2.1 handsets.

If they had, they wouldn't be ordering 24m of the 4GS phones...

2010/2011/2012/2013 all the year of Android...

[ShaggyDoggy]

24 million

They'll need those 24 million.

Here at work most are on their 3rd 3GS in a year and one guy is on his 6th.

Apple = the Amstrad of the 21st century

[Anonymous Coward]

Alan Michael Sugar Trading

Don't let SirAllun, sorry Lord Alan, hear you say that.

Flame: well you're fired obviously

[magnetik]

@ShaggyDoggy

I call BS. Most people I know with an iPhone have never had to replace them. My wife dropped hers on the road while chasing after our dog and it was simple and cheap (£40) to have the broken screen replaced. No need for a new phone.

[Tom Cooke]

@ShaggyDoggy

What are they doing to their iPhones?! We have lots here, and I've not heard of anything like that replacement rate (one guy dropped his from a significant height onto something very hard, smash, but that doesn't count as a reliability problem to me!).

First thing I did was get a hard shell and screen protector for my 3G, bulks it out a bit but it's pristine after a year....

[Tony Paulazzo]

The title.

>meaning its multitasking capabilities when running iPhone OS 4.0 should be superior to that of the first-generation iPad.<

Meaning the first generation iPad was intentionally crippled, unless you're saying the OS4 rewrite didn't begin until the iPad was finalised.

The upped resolution does sound nice though. Why is it that Apple appear to be the only company out there consistently moving the goalpost?

PS: I still strongly dislike Apple but pleased they're forcing everyone else to play catch up.

Smiling Penguin 'cause hating on Bill or Steve is pointless.

[Waffles666]

what goal posts

Apple have not moved any goal posts since the first iPhone and I doubt this new one will be anything above mediocre.

[Argh]

Moving the goal post

So when HTC released the Touch HD with 800x480 resolution about 2 years ago, they weren't moving any goalposts? The iPhone was released with a fairly low resolution at the time compared to may WM devices that were 640x480.

The iPhone also released with the intention of not supporting native apps, just web based apps, if you remember before they were forced to as other vendors did support native apps.

Tell me more about these goal posts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Said it befiore.....

.....and I'll say it again. All apple have to do to dominate the world is be more open and less controlling, oh and add less profiteering to that too.

Love the phones hate the control that comes with them. I abhor censorship of any kind and the control freakish nature that apple imposes.

Personally - I'll go android for next upgrade then either android again or will take a look at meego and MS phone 7.

[DZ-Jay]

Re: Said it befiore (sic)

And why would Apple try or even want to dominate the world? I think they are doing rather well without such plans, and a very small market share.

-dZ.

[Charlie Clark]

Lovely bits of kit

The competition, especially HTC, is getting good as well. Just wonder why Apple hasn't gone for an AMOLED screen. I'm a die-hard fan of my Ericsson G900 - it does pretty much everything I need but I am starting to want "something more". Apple's app lockdown is unfortunately extremely annoying and I think one of the main reasons for Android's remarkable take up. HTC Desire or Experia 10 Pro Mini for me, I think.

ARM Cortex A9 in the next (or next but one) Mac Book Air? Or will that be the iPad Pro?

[Richard 20]

@Webster

"Red China" - where have you been living mate?

Somewhere in the 1960s is my guess.

[Watashi]

Better phones

The iPhone 3Gs wasn't the best phone on the market when it was released, and I doubt the 4G will be either. Of course, none of those superior phones will be branded Apple...