JPMorgan Chase analyst said in a report on Tuesday that Apple may delay the launch of the new iPhone 12 by a month or two due to production issues caused by travel restrictions and slowdowns in 5G network growth due to partial shutdowns.
Since 2011, Apple has launched new iPhones every year in September or October. In most cases, successfully launching new devices that account for more than half of revenue is critical to the company.
However, the outbreak of COVID-19 and its countermeasures brought some challenges to Apple, including the interruption of its manufacturing supply chain in China, and questioning the demand for high-end equipment in economically closed countries due to the epidemic.
Apple's stores outside China have been closed until further notice.
"Given the recent bottlenecks around EVT (Engineering Verification Test, now planned for mid-April), PVT (Production Verification Test) and trial production (now planned for late June) caused by travel restrictions worldwide, we believe that the new iPhone It's possible that the launch of the company will be delayed by one to two months, but we don't think it is likely to be delayed by one or two quarters. "JP Morgan Chase analyst Gokul Hariharan wrote in the report.
The analyst also predicts that the US blockade may delay the establishment of 5G networks by carriers, which may also affect the release time of new iPhones that support 5G.
The analyst wrote: "Due to the current blockade measures, delays in the construction of 5G networks in the United States may be a major risk for the launch of 5G iPhones."
Regardless of when the new iPhone is released, the smartphone market is currently in a difficult position during the outbreak.
According to Strategy Analytics estimates, global smartphone shipments fell by 38% year-on-year in February, the largest decline since the statistics began in 2003.
