Apple's Mac orders with suppliers have remained constant, and are expected to increase overall during the second half of the year, heading into the lucrative holiday shopping season, according to a new rumor out of Apple's supply chain.
Citing its usual unnamed supply chain sources, Digitimes reported on Thursday that suppliers expect Mac sales will be greater in the second half of 2015 than they were in the first six months. While the publication has a poor track record on predicting future product launches, it does offer insight as to where Apple's partners believe the company is headed in the near-term.
The new rumor comes on the heels of Apple's latest on quarterly earnings report, in which it revealed it shipped 4.7 million Macs during the June quarter. That was an increase of 9 percent year-over-year, amidst continued declines in the overall, Windows-dominated PC market.
The iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro are all currently being manufactured by Quanta Computer, while the 12-inch Retina MacBook is in the hands of Pegatron, the sources noted.
The remarks suggest that Apple anticipates recent levels of Mac demand to continue, even though several Mac models have already seen 2015 updates. The company could be in theory planning to update the Mac Pro and/or Mac mini, and make more extensive iMac changes.
In May Apple added a new $1,999 5K iMac configuration, and dropped the price of its top-end 5K model to $2,299, but otherwise left the iMac lineup alone. The Mac mini received a modest update in 2014, and the Mac Pro hasn't been upgraded since 2013.