Oliver Haslam·

Bloomberg: Apple Will Launch 2020 iPhone 12 Lineup As Scheduled

Despite claims to the contrary, Apple is still on course to launch its 2020 iPhones – likely called iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max – this coming fall. That’s despite coronavirus having an impact on its manufacturing partners; most notably, Foxconn.

That’s according to a new Bloomberg report with Foxconn said to be back up and running and ready to get its iPhone 12 manufacturing up to speed.

The report says that mass production isn’t set to kick off until summer, too.

Signs are that Apple’s Chinese-centric manufacturing — of which Hon Hai is the linchpin — is slowly getting back on track. The next iPhones with 5G wireless capabilities remain on schedule to launch in the fall, partly because mass production isn’t slated to begin until the summer, people familiar with matter have said. Yet the sort of assembly that Foxconn specializes in is but one part of Apple’s supply chain: the U.S. company and its partners spend months or even years sourcing components around the world and any disruptions to that complex network could delay future devices.

While Foxconn is thought to be running at the required capacity already, we don’t know whether the same can be said of Apple’s other manufacturing partners. With that in mind, it’s possible that future Apple products may experience delays, especially if component shortages are experienced.

Apple is expected to announce a new Apple Watch around September, with new notebooks and iMac refreshes also thought to be in the cards. Whether all of those will still take place, or if some will be pushed further down the calendar, remains to be seen.

(Source: Bloomberg, Top image: iPhone 12 concept in Navy Blue)

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