Apple has been increasing its penetration into entry-level smartphone markets and the production of iPhone 3GS has continued steadily with the volume likely to reach two million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 1.4-1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2012, reports “DigiTimes” (http://macte.ch/Oh31B), quoting unnamed “industry sources.”

Why such high demand for the older iPhone model? Apple has been pushing the sale of its 8GB iPhone 3GS globally and AT&T has also been promoting iPhone 3GS to contract subscribers with zero subscription rates, the article adds.

Production of the CDMA version of iPhone 4 is expected to top 800,000 to one million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 500,000-600,000 units in the following quarter, adds “DigiTimes.”