Some have speculated that the iPhone 12 may be pushed back thanks to complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and now the best source short of Apple confirming a release date has given us an update.
According to Foxconn - the manufacturing company that assembles Apple's iPhone products - the company has lost some time because of Covid-19, but it believes Apple's next device will be ready by the end of the year.
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Foxconn has reopened its plants after the Covid-19 outbreak, but it says it lost a month of preparation time thanks to travel restrictions and other issues caused by the pandemic.
The investor relations chief at Foxconn, Alex Yang, shared the update in a private conference call that included reporters for Bloomberg. Yang said, “We and the customer’s engineers are trying to catch up the missing gap, after we lost some days due to travel ban. There’s opportunity and possibility that we might catch up."
Nothing is guaranteed though, with Yang noting, "If there’s a further delay in the next few weeks, months, then you probably have to reconsider launching time. It’s still possible.”
After these statements, Foxconn clarified that it intended the above to relate to all the company's tech clients rather than just one specific product.
Although that means the comments aren't particularly relating to the iPhone 12 directly, many believe that to be one of the products the company is referencing when it says there may be further delays.
Whether Apple is able to release the iPhone 12 on time will also rely on the company's supply chain.
That includes hundreds of components being manufactured by a wide variety of companies, and all of them are set to be impacted by coronavirus in one way or another, so there may be further issues ahead for the company.
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