Taiwanese Apple supplier Pegatron will remain a major assembler of smaller iPhones and will share orders for this year's forthcoming iPhone 13 mini with Foxconn, claims a new report from DigiTimes.
Pegatron has obtained orders for the upcoming 5.4-inch iPhone model, as well as a portion of orders for another upcoming iPhone model that will feature a 6.1-inch display, according to market sources.
This year's iPhone 13 mini is expected to be the last 5.4-inch model that Apple will offer in its flagship lineup, owing to poor sales, according to reliable sources. Apple does not plan to introduce a 5.4-inch iPhone 14 mini, with the mini line ending after the iPhone 13.
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple in 2022 will instead offer two 6.1-inch iPhones and two 6.7-inch iPhones, so both the standard iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Pro will be available in those two size options.
Pegatron is Apple's second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn, and in February spent $14.2 million to buy land rights for building a factory in Chennai, India. The outlay followed a proposal approved in late 2020 by its board of directors to spend $150 million on building its first iPhone manufacturing plant in the country.
Regular readers may recall that Apple suspended its partnership with Pegatron in November 2020 after it discovered that the major iPhone supplier was committing labor violations at a student workers' program.
Apple put Pegatron on probation as a result of the violations, and while supplier's current iPhone business was not expected to be affected, it was originally forecast to lose some iPhone 12 orders to other Apple supplier Luxshare.
The latest information was shared in DigiTimes' paywalled "Before Going to Press" section, so there are no further details yet, but the full report should be released later on Tuesday.
Update: The full report, now released, reveals that both Pegatron and Foxconn will share orders for iPhone 13 mini, although Pegatron has seen orders for the smaller form factor iPhone reduce significantly this year due to lower-than-expected sales of the iPhone 12 mini.
While Pegatron is also likely to land a small portion of the orders for the standard 6.1-inch iPhone 13 model in the new iPhone lineup, Foxconn will remain the primary assembler for the entire 2021 iPhone series. China-based Luxshare will also become one of Apple's iPhone production partners this year, according to DigiTimes' sources.
