Why Was the iPhone 12 Not Launched at the September 15 Apple Event?

Typically, Apple launches its iPhones in the first or second week of September. It subsequently goes up for preorders, and is up for sale towards the end of September or the first week of October. While the ‘Time Flies’ event fell almost within Apple’s natural period of launching devices, reports from the past few months had already indicated a possible delay in the launch of Apple’s latest iPhones. At the centre of it, of course, is the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the outbreak of the pandemic in China, as most major factories were shut down and extensive lockdown brought industries to a halt, Apple faced an unprecedented setback in its manufacturing timeline. Typically, the February-March period is by when Apple’s next generation iPhones are cleared through the engineering validation testing (EVT) stage, and enters production stage. It is this key phase that was delayed, due to restrictions in travelling causing Apple executives to have limitations in coordinating with their production and supply chains, and of course, factories staying shut.

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As factories reopened, Apple focused on its business to stock up on more of its ‘affordable’ iPhones, such as 2018’s iPhone XR, or this year’s iPhone SE. Subsequently, Apple also stated back in February that it was lowering its revenue guideline, as resumption of normal market conditions was taking longer than what it had anticipated. As a result, most analysts reduced guidance figures for Apple’s 5G ready iPhones, and the iPhone 12 took a back seat to make way for more value-first iPhones.