The CEO of Broadcom, one of Apple’s major suppliers for hardware like iPhone Wi-Fi chips has shared today that it expects Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup to see a delay from the traditional September timeframe to Q4, adding more weight to the idea that it will be October before Apple launches this year’s iPhones.
Reported by Bloomberg, Broadcom’s CEO shared more about the company’s expectations for the iPhone 12 launch during an earnings call without explicitly naming Apple.
Hock Tan, chief executive officer of Broadcom, discussed a “major product cycle delay” at a “large North American mobile phone” customer, during an earnings conference call with analysts on Thursday.
Tan often refers to Apple this way. This time, the executive said the delay will mean the bump in wireless revenue experienced by Broadcom will happen one quarter later than usual this year.
The launch change for this year’s iPhone 12 lineup is significant for Broadcom as it means its revenue for Q3 will be notably lower.
“This year, we do not expect to see this uptick in revenue until our fourth fiscal quarter,” the CEO added. “So accordingly, we expect, our wireless revenue in Q3 will be down sequentially.”
The news corroborates what we’ve been hearing from other sources like the WSJ, Bloomberg, and Ming-Chi Kuo over the last few months.
The current consensus is that Apple will launch the iPhone 12 lineup in October this year, although Tan’s comment today is a bit more general with the mention of Q4. We could still see Apple unveil the latest iPhones during a September event with availability just pushed out one month. Or also see a staggered release like we did with the iPhone XR and X back in 2017.
For more on the iPhone 12, check out our roundup of everything we know here.
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