Is Apple going to launch new iPhones later this year? Maybe! But there is a lot going on in the world right now, so there is plenty of speculation the company might miss the expected release date.
Take, for example, a recent report we covered that suggested some supply partners for Apple are already planning for a delay to production for the iPhone 12. That report indicated Apple was planning to delay the 5G-enabled iPhone 12 launch “by months” due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic. However, a new report says differently. According to DigiTimes‘s latest paywalled report, supply partners tasked with manufacturing printed circuit boards (PCBs) for the impending iPhone 12 have not been told to postpone volume production of the handset by any amount of time.
Per the report:
Taiwan’s PCB makers in the supply chain of 5G iPhones have denied reports claiming they have been asked to postpone volume production by two months in line with a likely launch delay for Apple’s new-generation devices amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to industry sources.
There has been quite a bit of a back-and-forth as far as the expected launch of the iPhone 12. Back in February we reported that the global pandemic could “cloud” Apple’s production timeline for all of the company’s new iPhones. However, earlier this month it was reported that Apple was still on target for launching the iPhone 12 later this year.
There are plenty of questions to ask regarding the expectations for a new iPhone this year. There have been plenty of rumors that the company is going to launch an “iPhone 9” or “iPhone SE 2” in the early half of 2020, but so far that hasn’t panned out. Whether or not that has anything to do with the current situation across the globe is anyone’s guess at this point (well, anyone outside of Apple with knowledge of the matter). But if things don’t get better in any meaningful capacity, Apple may indeed feel a need to delay the new iPhone’s launch.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.