New iPhones launch in September, and that’s a trend that’s been around since as far back as the iPhone 5. With the insane rumor whirlwind surrounding the highly anticipated iPhone 8, there’s been plenty of hand wringing and whispers to suggest that the new flagship won’t be ready to carry on the tradition. Now, a report on a possible Apple supplier seems to suggest that the iPhone 8 will indeed arrive a bit later than usual.
The info comes from a company, Finisar, that is thought to be supplying Apple with high-tech lasers built into the iPhone 8, which are used for a variety of things including AR depth mapping and possibly image recognition. The report claims that “one company” will be purchasing tens of millions of units of the specialized lasers later this year, and that company is thought to be Apple.
If that theory holds true, then Finisar’s production schedule could be a pretty solid indicator of the iPhone 8’s release window. Loup Ventures, which connected all these dots in the first place, now expects Apple to debut the iPhone 8 at an event in September, but not actually ship until a month later in October. That guess lines up nicely with other reports that place the iPhone 8’s launch in October.
The relatively minor delay over the established norm is being chalked up to potential manufacturing setbacks, and considering how many reports we’ve already seen this year that hint at supply constraints and other issues, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the new smartphone arrive a month later than its predecessors.
