Apple: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger iPhone Order

With demand for its new iPhone 4S still running strong following an initial surge of preorders, Apple is reportedly ratcheting up production volume on the device.

Supply chain sources tell the Commercial Times that Pegatron Technology has received orders to build another five million iPhone 4S handsets; this is in addition to the 10 million it has already been contracted to produce.

Pegatron is the smaller of Apple’s two iPhone 4S OEM partners — the larger being Foxconn. It had initially been tapped to handle about 15 percent of the device’s production load, with deliveries not scheduled to begin until early 2012.

But supply chain insiders now claim Apple is looking to take delivery of a few million of them before the end of the year. Which may mean that demand for this latest iteration of the iPhone is greater than even Apple expected. Add to this record first-day sales of one million and it’s pretty clear that consumers are as enamored of the 4S as they were of each version of the device that preceded it.

As Brian White of Ticonderoga Securities observed earlier this week, “While the unveiling of the iPhone 4S received a muted response, both from the market and tech blogs, the customers have the final word, in our view, and they have spoken with resounding enthusiasm for the iPhone 4S.”