Supply chain hints 20% climb in Q1 FY2010 iPhone 3GS sales

Fresh from helping create a shortage of flash memory components, Apple seems set to create yet another shortage, this time reducing one supplier’s stock of image sensors, as used in the iPhone and iPod nano cameras.

While news that strong seasonal demand from Apple will hit supplies from OmniVision of these image sensors is bound to spark another hubbub of expectation Apple may field cameras inside the iPod touch (we don’t anticipate this until after Christmas), it seems strong iPhone sales are culprit.

With all those iPhones churning out, and now with distribution in China and through multiple carriers in formerly exclusive countries such as the UK, Apple execs are clearly working to high demand projections. Digitimes informs, “Tight supply is not expected to ease until late November 2009, the sources pointed out.

“Apple has increased fourth-quarter orders for the iPhone 3GS to its Taiwan-based manufacturing partners Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Primax Electronics by 17-20%,” the report says.

Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in its last quarter, representing seven percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Suggestions the company has raised manufacturing orders by up to 20 percent is bound to drive Wall Street’s number-crunchers to upwardly revise their current estimates for Q1 and FY2010 iPhone 3GS sales, as this could point to an additional 1.2-1.5 million sales over and beyond the c.6/7 million units consensus estimates that are being bandied around.

We’ll wait and see.