Veteran Apple analyst and crystal ball holder, Ming-Chi Kuo, said yesterday we should expect the next iPhone (let’s call it the iPhone 13 for now, shall we?) to go into mass production following Apple’s usual schedule, which the company had to push back with the iPhone 12 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Apple had to shut down its offices and factories in China back in February as part of its COVID-19 response, resulting in a delay in mass production of 1-2 months.
Apple was still able to hit a fall launch for the iPhone 12, but for the first time since 2011, the company had to postpone the launch event from September to October. The iPhone 12 family launched soon after, with the base iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro models launching on October 23, and the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max launching on November 13.
Apple usually initiates mass production of its latest iPhone early in the summer of the launch year, and Kuo says that the iPhone 13 is on track to follow this schedule.
The analyst’s research note, obtained by MacRumors, also reinforced that demand for the iPhone 12 family is holding strong, debunking rumours that supplier TSMC’s capacity utilization rate for the A14 chips that power the iPhone 12 lineup is expected to drop from 100% to 80% in Q1 2021 due to decreased demand, revealing seasonality factors to be the cause of the drop.
It looks like we could see the next iPhone, equipped with a brand new A15 chipset, in the usual month of September next year. However, take all this with a grain of salt — while an end to this pandemic might be in sight with positive news about vaccines, it isn’t over just yet.
