Apple has closely followed its release strategy for iPhones ever since Steve Jobs first introduced the original iPhone back in 2007. Since then, Apple has released its iPhones every year either in October or for the past couple of years, in September. The time frame gives Apple access to a lot of festivals, Spring, and the holiday season every year which is when Apple expects the most shipments. However, citing supply chain sources, the company could change its directives by 2021.
According to J.P. Morgan analysts Samik Chatterjee, there is a bit of seasonality change within its suppliers. Apple could be eyeing a shift in release strategy opting for a six-months time frame between two consecutive iPhone releases in a year while other OEMs stick to releases throughout the year. Samsung alone has at least seven smartphones pending to release this month which gives a broad idea about the release strategy.
The change in the strategy will offer Apple a bit of flexibility in upgrading its iPhones to combat the increasing competition from its rivals like Samsung and Huawei. This report comes from supply chain checks as per J.P. Morgan where it states that the strategy as per what the air around states that two iPhone models will be released in the first half of 2021 while two other models will be released in the second half of 2021 totaling at four models a year.
In fact, the report also predicts that Apple is planning to release not three but four iPhones next year that will be officially launched in the fall of 2020. These iPhones will include a single 5.4-inch, two 6.1-inch, and a fourth 6.7-inch iPhones all clad with superior OLED displays. The J.P. Morgan report also predicts that all the 2020 iPhones will get 5G networks although some might not receive mmWave 5G support and will stick to sub-6GHz 5G network which is slower when compared to mmWave.
Other specifications that 2020 iPhones are expected to host is a rear-facing 3D sensing camera at the back paired along with triple camera setup, mmWave support for Pro models while the non-Pro models will have a dual-camera at the back with sub-6GHz 5G support and there won’t be any 3D sensing camera at the back.
There is a bit of discrepancy here as there are two other reports that contradict it without any doubt. Popular Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TF Securities published a report that there are at least three iPhones with OLED displays with screen sizes i.e. 5.4”, 6.1”. Ad 6.7”. Ming also mentioned that all the 2020 iPhones will have 5G support.
On the contrary, a report by Korean ETNews states that there are two 6.1-inch iPhones and there will be only one model (probably iPhone 12 Pro Max) that will get 5G network support while others will still have LTE. We will keep an eye on the progress and provide insight on whatever happens around the 2020 iPhones here at TrueTech so stick along.
