You don’t have to be a master pattern spotter to figure out the most likely window for Apple’s latest iPhone to emerge.
Over the last decade, Apple has announced every one of its numbered smartphones in every September, with one exception: 2020. And that has the best possible excuse, given the world had slightly bigger problems on its plate, like coming up with safe vaccines for the pandemic that was running rampant.
Nonetheless, one Bank of America analyst believes that this year’s iPhone 15 might miss that window. Not only that, but the analyst in question also predicted the iPhone 12 wouldn’t hit a September release window all the way back in March 2020 (though with the world suddenly going into lockdown, that might say more about the analysts who didn’t see it coming).
In an investment note seen by Barrons, Wamsi Mohan writes that the upcoming iPhone 15 launch could slip into the fourth quarter. While that stretches from October through to December, according to the site, the note only says that the launch “could be delayed by a few weeks” which sounds like it’ll be a spooky Halloween arrival, rather than a festive Christmas one.
That makes sense: if a global pandemic with all the supply chain disruptions involved only held the iPhone 12 back a few weeks (or a couple of months in the case of the mini and Pro Max models), then any current woes must surely be smallfry in comparison.
No reason was given for the delay, but we’ll likely hear a number of supply chain sources backing it up in the coming weeks if it’s true. But it’s probably best to prepare to hang on to your current phone for a bit longer, if you were all set on the iPhone 15.
Still, spare a thought for the real victims: Apple shareholders. As a result of the delay, Mohan projects Apple’s September quarter revenue at ‘just’ NZ$140.7 billion, rather than the main consensus of NZ$148 billion. The heart bleeds.
