Katie Marsal
Avago, TriQuint and Skyworks have all been tapped to supply gallium arsenide, or GaAs, components that will be found in Apple's next iPhone, industry sources reportedly told DigiTimes. The total material costs of GaAs components per iPhone is estimated to reach about $6.
GaAs, a compound of gallium and arsenic, is a semiconductive material used in the manufacturing of electronic devices. It has certain properties that make it superior to silicon, and is frequently found in integrated circuits, infrared light-emitting diodes, and more.
Apple has already partnered with TriQuint and Skyworks for GaAs power amplifiers on already-available devices. But the launch of the fifth-generation iPhone will mark the first time that the company has aligned with Avago for the GaAs components in its mobile devices.
The launch of the new iPhone will occur in the third quarter of calendar 2011, Wednesday's report said. That means the device could be unveiled anytime between now and the end of September.
News of suppliers for the anticipated fifth-generation iPhone has continued to pick up in recent weeks as Apple moves toward an expected launch. Earlier this month, it was said that Apple had placed orders for 15 million iPhones from manufacturer Pegatron.
Various reports have suggested that Apple will launch its new iPhone in September, and that the device will be a moderate upgrade from the current iPhone 4. The new model is expected to have an improved 8-megapixel camera, and will sport the same custom A5 processor found in the iPad 2.
A recent report from The Wall Street Journal claimed that the next iPhone will also be thinner and lighter than the current iPhone 4. It was said that Apple plans to build 25 million units of the next-generation device through the end of 2011.
David Schloss
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40 Comments
I'm not trying to rush Apple here, but the new iPhone can't come out soon enough. My 3GS is getting very long in the tooth. I'm quite ready for an upgrade. I'm planning on preordering mine the day that it's available for preorder. Of course that is probably going to absolutely crush their servers, but what else do you do. I waited in line for 10 hours for my wife's IP4. I sure don't want to do that again, especially considering that people who preordered were getting their new phones before the store launch.
They're just getting suppliers now for a phone that's supposed to launch in ten weeks?
Maybe I'm naive about the incredible pace that devices get designed and manufactured these days, but that seems ridiculous, especially if you need to build-in any time at all for testing (and at least a week for shipping - I assume that most of these devices are still shipped to the U.S. by boat).
Oh My God, Apple please hurry up and announce something already! Reading these same rumored reports of the time frame and expected specs over and over is just frustrating beyond belief.
I have resigned myself to the fact that it will be September/October before the phone is available, so please just give us something concrete to think about for the next couple of months. The usual 1 year wait it hard enough, but we are now at month 13 with no real hard info yet. Please give us something real. Schedule your media event already, we need to know!
I'm not trying to rush Apple here, but the new iPhone can't come out soon enough. My 3GS is getting very long in the tooth. I'm quite ready for an upgrade. I'm planning on preordering mine the day that it's available for preorder.
This could have been my post. I was typing almost the exact thing.
If they are lining things up now, it should not be too long before we start seeing photos of alleged iphone 5 parts, or a completed device!