Component orders for Apple's iPhone 7 have risen, one report said Wednesday, providing another hint at how the new flagship device may be selling.
Order visibility in the fourth quarter will be 20 to 30 percent higher than expected for Taiwan-based touch panel makers, sources told Digitimes, a supply chain news website focused on the Chinese information technology market.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the report to CNBC. But it comes as the phone has been in short supply so far.
Timothy Arcuri, an analyst at Cowen and Co., wrote earlier this month that he thought Apple had begun to add incremental iPhone supply for the December quarter. Arcuri said supply chain checks indicated that the tech giant wanted to maintain some supply constraints until "demand becomes a little more certain."
Indeed, Apple declined to release its usual first-weekend sales of the iPhone 7, noting that "phones sold during the period has become more a reflection of Apple's supply than demand."
Since then, analysts have debated . But Bank of America Merrill Lynch said .
As Digitimes notes, that could be good news for struggling touch-screen companies like Taiwan's TPK and GIS. Analysts at Nomura cut the price target for TPK this summer and downgraded shares of GIS, tied to concerns about Apple. GIS reported a nearly 27 percent year-over-year decline in revenue in August, according to its website.
The companies were not immediately available to comment, but TPK's website notes that it hasn't disclosed or discussed customer and product information in the media or Digitimes.