Apple Planning to Make Over 40 Million iPhones in Next 12 Months?

BusinessWeek claims that Apple's manufacturing plans for the iPhone are rather ambitious. According to their sources, Apple is planning to build 40 million to 45 million iPhone 3Gs in the next 12 months.

While final sales can't be known until after the fact, clues are emerging as to Apple's production plans. As of mid-August, they were ambitious, BusinessWeek has learned. Apple plans to build 40 million to 45 million iPhone 3Gs in the 12 months through August 2009, according to a person familiar with the company's plans.

The article goes on to say that daily production of the iPhone 3G is now at 150,000 units per day. These numbers are close to previous claims that Apple is producing 800,000 devices a week.

Part of the ramp up in production is, of course, due to Apple's aggressive international expansion. The Apple's iPhone 3G is launching internationally in 20 countries today.