- Apple’s iPhone 9 will likely be released next week according to a new analyst report.
- The coronavirus has delayed the iPhone 12 development process by two weeks.
- Apple’s iPhone 12 models will still launch in September while the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 model will reportedly launch in October.
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There’s been a lot of speculation surrounding Apple’s iPhone release schedule as it pertains to both the iPhone 9 and iPhone 12. Compounding matters, of course, is that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has completely disrupted Apple’s development process and any initial release timelines it had.
The iPhone 9, for instance, was initially supposed to arrive in stores sometime in March according to a handful of credible sources. The March release date made sense given that the original iPhone SE — which is essentially the predecessor to the iPhone 9 — was released in March of 2016.
A new research note from GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu (via MacRumors) now claims that the compact device — which will boast a 4.7-inch LCD display with Touch ID — will be released in mid-April. We’ve seen a few previous reports claiming that the iPhone 9 would arrive last week, so you’d be well-advised to take Pu’s report with a grain of salt. That said, there’s no denying that the evidence pointing to an iPhone 9 release in April is mounting and increasingly hard to ignore.
In regards to the iPhone 12, Pu anticipates that various issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic have impacted the device’s developmental timeline by about two weeks. The report notes:
As a result, Pu currently expects the 5.4-inch and two 6.1-inch models to be available in September, followed by the 6.7-inch model in October. This two-phase rollout would be similar to 2018, when the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max were released in September, followed by the iPhone XR in October.
It’s worth noting that nothing is set in stone at this point given that the situation surrounding the coronavirus remains fluid and is changing from week to week. To this end, we’ve seen reports indicating that Apple won’t make a firm decision regarding the iPhone 12’s release schedule until sometime next month.
As we’ve highlighted before, the iPhone 12 release doesn’t just hinge on getting the engineering finished and starting mass production. There’s also an economic factor to consider. Remember, with millions of people across the world on lockdown, and with unemployment in the United States reaching new heights, the demand for luxury devices like a new iPhone may be significantly lower for months to come. As others have noted, the iPhone 12 will be the first iPhone to support 5G and Apple would ideally like to release it with a lot of fanfare as opposed to releasing it in an economic environment when people couldn’t care less.
