Rumour | Coronavirus may delay the mass-production of the iPhone 12 series

According to DigiTimes, the coronavirus will not impact Apple's iPhone release cycle this year. Cited by MacRumors, DigiTimes claims that the iPhone 12 series will still launch this September. It is worth keeping in mind that Apple has not confirmed that the name "iPhone 12" yet, but that seems to be the consensus for some reason. On the contrary, if past iPhone releases are anything to go by, then the next iPhone flagships will be the iPhone 11s series.

While the outbreak of the coronavirus will not affect the release date of Apple's yearly September refresh, DigiTimes states that it has hindered Apple in other ways. The website reports, for instance, that Apple has suspended sending engineers to China for the Engineering Validation Test (EVT) of its September-bound iPhones. The outbreak has forced some of Apple's suppliers to halt operations, too.

The net result is that Apple may be forced to delay the mass-production of the iPhone 12 series. Apparently originally due to begin in June, DigiTimes has not stated by how long Apple would be delayed. Separately, coronavirus has apparently not delayed the production of the iPhone SE 2, either.