Apple orders between 85M and 90M units of upcoming iPhone models, around 10M more than last year; new models expected to have Force Touch technology
Apple Plans Record Number of New iPhones — Apples asks suppliers to make up to 90 million of the expected next models by year-end
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2015 report is the origin point of what became Apple's most-watched supply-chain ritual: the pre-launch order placed with suppliers months before the fall iPhone debut, here 85–90 million units and roughly 10M above the prior cycle, with Force Touch flagged as the headline hardware change. The order is both a manufacturing commitment and the year's clearest demand signal.
The pattern held and hardened over the following decade: after a flat 75M-component run for H2 2019, Apple pushed to up to 96M units for H1 2021, then settled into asking assemblers for exactly 90M in 2021 and again in 2022 — the latter even as IDC projected a 3.5% smartphone-market contraction, making Apple's order book visibly counter-cyclical.
First-order effects
- Apple's component and assembly suppliers immediately gain volume visibility for the holiday quarter, locking in capacity for up to 90M units versus last cycle's ~80M baseline.
Second-order effects
- Rival handset makers face an assembler base whose peak-season capacity and component allocation are increasingly committed to Apple's launch window, tightening supply and pricing for everyone else's flagships.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple's annual order hardens into a structural floor — the 2022 repeat at 90M against a shrinking market shows the number functioning as a strategic commitment rather than a pure demand forecast, concentrating supplier dependence on one customer's calendar.
The trend: Apple's pre-launch supplier order is evolving from a seasonal demand signal into a fixed ~90M-unit annual baseline that persists even when the broader smartphone market contracts.