Good news, everyone! The iPhone 12 is coming out… eventually. Apple announced that the iPhone 12 will indeed face delays. During yesterday’s earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri admitted to shareholders that the iPhone 12 will be “a few weeks later” than its typical late September release. The earliest we could see the iPhone 12 is in mid-October, though it could come as late as early November.
Although, given delays from previous years, is this due to COVID, or something else?
Not the First Delayed iPhone
The iPhone X wasn’t released until November. I still remember wondering if I should have just gotten an iPhone 8 like my other friends. I was jealous of their new iPhones while I had to wait months for mine. I couldn’t release my review of that until mid-December! The iPhone XR was released in October. The iPhone SE has been released months after the release of the other iPhones.
This often happens with a completely new body style. The truth is, the iPhone closely resembled the iPhone 6 for the past 5 years. This may be the first truly unique body style for the iPhone in half a decade. It was bound to take Apple a little longer to release it. Furthermore, it’s Apple’s first 5G iPhone. This may have required updated supply chains or supply constraints that Apple wasn’t able to compensate for. Apple may have also had to do additional testing for the new radios.
With COVID-19 slowing everything down worldwide, a September release wasn’t likely, but with the changes to the new iPhone, a September release was never expected.
Likely Release Date?
Apple’s CFO mentioned “a few weeks.” That’s at least three weeks, possibly as much as five before we start running into “you should have said ‘month'” territory. It’s possible that the iPhone 12 will still have its September reveal, but it may not actually end up in your hands until mid to late October or even November. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait.
Sources:
- Chance Miller, 9to5Mac
- Lewis Wallace, Cult of Mac