It looks like Apple is getting serious about releasing more products every year. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has been hiring engineers from HTC and other Taiwanese tech companies that will help the company work more closely with Asian suppliers so it can churn out new iPhone and iPad models more frequently. The Journal says that Apple has come under increased pressure to produce “faster and more frequent product launches” now that the average product cycle length has shortened significantly over the past couple of years.
The Journal’s sources say that “Apple also has been hiring for its main Asian base in Shanghai, where it moved into a new three-building complex last year” so it looks like Apple is moving much more aggressively to push out more products and counter the army of different phones and tablets that Samsung churns out every year. Although Apple will probably never be able to match Samsung’s awe-inspiring gadget spam powers, it’s likely that the company will release at least two distinct versions of its next-generation iPhone this year: One that will be slightly larger than its current iPhone 5s flagship phone and another that will be closer to a phablet-sized device than any iPhone yet released.
