While nowhere near as serious as the actual impact on human lives, the repercussions of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic on the global mobile industry are essentially growing larger and larger by the day, ranging from a massive drop in Chinese smartphone sales to a slightly smaller decline in worldwide handset production, the cancellation of the largest trade show in this business, and possibly, delays for some of the year’s most highly anticipated releases.

A late production start could still lead to short supply at launch

Bottom line, even if today’s optimistic forecast comes true and Apple manages to unveil its next-gen high-end iPhones in September, kicking off production “after June” could well mean the traditional release will end up being unusually limited. All in all, we don’t know how this whole affair will play out, but at least for the time being, things look a little less bleak than initially anticipated.

Apple has high hopes for the iPhone 12 family

Following several underwhelming years in terms of sales volume, the Cupertino-based tech giant reportedly expects the iPhone 12, 12 Plus, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max to generate significantly higher demand than its predecessors. Namely, today’s “industry sources” are forecasting production of next-gen Apple A14 chips could exceed the A13’s numbers by a whopping 50 to 60 percent.