Apple Confirms 2020 iPhones Will Be Delayed a “Few Weeks”

This afternoon Apple announced its Q3 earnings, seeing $59.7 billion in revenue, an increase year-over-year, while also detailing its stock would split 4-to-1.

During the earnings call, Apple also confirmed this year’s 2020 iPhones will be delayed. According to Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, he noted this year’s iPhones won’t be on their usual September timeline, but rather a “few weeks” delayed.

“As you know, the last year we started selling new iPhones in late September. This year, we project supply to be available a few weeks later,” said Maestri, on the earnings call.

To confirm what Maestri had said earlier about the iPhone delay, Jim Suva of Citigroup asked the Apple CFO about it again later in the call, and surely enough, the executive did confirm a delay was coming (via Six Colors):

“I said in my remarks that a year ago, we launched the new iPhone in late September. So I was referring to new product. And I said that this year, the supply of the new product will be a few weeks later than that,” said Maestri.

Apple didn’t clarify the reason for the delay, but most likely it’s due to COVID-19, as during the height of lockdowns, employees were unable to travel to China and vice versa to oversee production and other final design development.

It’s not unusual for Apple to launch an iPhone later than September, as we saw that happen with the iPhone X in 2017, when it launched in November.

Yesterday, Qualcomm hinted an iPhone delay might be coming when it said a major customer would be delaying its 5G flagship phone launch, without naming any names.

Back in March, the Nikkei Asian Review reported Apple’s iPhone line up for 2020 might be delayed due to coronavirus and the effect on the company’s supply chains.

Apple is expected to debut 2020 iPhones with displays ranging from 5.4-inch, 6.1-inch and 6.7-inches, with a design that may look like the company’s latest iPad Pros (and iPhone 5), according to rumours.