Apple released its quarterly earnings earlier today, in which it reported $59.7 billion in revenue for its third fiscal quarter of 2020, higher than expected. Shortly after, the tech giant held a conference call, where it revealed that this year"s iPhones will be released later than usual.
Luca Maestri, Apple"s Chief Financial Officer, confirmed that the new iPhone series will be delayed by a few weeks this year (via Axios). That means the 2020 iPhone models will miss their target release in September, which has traditionally been the launch window for Apple"s smartphones.
Maestri"s confirmation does not come entirely as a surprise. Over the past few months, there have been quite a number of indications pointing to a delayed iPhone launch this year. For instance, Broadcom, a major chip supplier to Apple, suggested last month that a “large North American mobile phone” customer would face a major delay to its product cycle. In an interview with Reuters, Qualcomm"s Chief Financial Officer Akash Palkhiwala also insinuated a delay of a flagship device from an unnamed customer. He said:
“We’re seeing a partial impact from the delay of a flagship phone launch. And so what we’ve seen is a slight delay that pushes some of the units out from the September quarter to the December quarter for us."
That said, Apple was quick to note that it projected robust growth in its MacBook and iPad businesses, which saw $7.079 billion and $6.582 billion in revenues for Q3 of its fiscal year 2020.