According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple might release its flagship products later than planned. The date has been pushed back 12 months due to the pandemic but the company has yet to make any announcements.

Usually, Apple releases its products mid-September but this means that the production starts in the summer and is wrapped up in early August. This year, however, the mass production planned for the summer is not possible and the company will only be building “some” of the new iPhone between July and September which means the product will not be released in the planned months.

Source: Mashable

This could also mean that Apple might release the iPhone this year in September but does not allow it to reach the market until much later till the mass production is possible. It could also have a bit of a staggered launch, with some models arriving on the market earlier than others (this happened in 2017, when the iPhone X arrived two months later than the iPhone 8). We believe that the company is just planning to propose the launch altogether.

The WSJ reports bring one more important point to light as it reveals that Apple plans to launch four iPhone models this year: a 5.4-inch phone, two 6.1-inch phones, and one 6.7-inch phone, all of them featuring OLED displays.
The delay in production has occurred due to the coronavirus pandemic which has shut down most of Apple’s supply chains around the world. In China, the stores have opened but as far as the United States and other countries are concerned, the product is still on hold due to lockdown orders.

The WSJ report says the pandemic has also disrupted the way Apple develops the iPhone, with engineering teams having to guide Chinese colleagues through prototype assembly via video calls.