Suppliers to Start Shipping Out iPhone 7 Units at the End of Third Quarter [Digitimes]

Apple’s next generation iPhone will allegedly start shipping out from suppliers at the end of the third quarter, reports Digitimes. Taiwanese suppliers have already started mass hires as they make preparations for manufacturing the iPhone 7.

As spotted by Taiwan’s Economic Daily News (via CNBC) two of Apple’s key iPhone suppliers, Foxconn and Pegatron have kicked off recruitment season at least a month earlier than previous years.

The reason for the early hiring, according to the Economic Daily News, is that the iPhone 7’s design is more complex than previous models, forcing suppliers to work on parts earlier than before, and assembling staff need more training than with previous models.

Digitimes notes that the 4.7-inch model will be assembled by both Foxconn and Pegatron, while the 5.5-inch model by Wistron and Foxconn.

As expected, no specification was given what makes the iPhone 7 more complex than other models, so we can only speculate based on the rumours we’ve read so far. While the design of the iPhone 7 somewhat resembles the iPhone 6 series, if we are to believe the rumours, we can expect to see changes like the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack and possibly the introduction of a Smart Connector — although the rumour mill has been churning out contradictory information about the latter.