Commerce

Qualcomm hints at (slight) 5G iPhone 12 delay


We continue to gather shards of evidence around Apple’s upcoming iPhone 12 plans, so fresh statements from Qualcomm CEO, Steve Mollenkopf, add to the speculation.

‘15% reduction in handset shipments’

While announcing flat revenues, the company has managed to maintain its business during the pandemic, but Mollenkopf warned fourth quarter guidance might be impacted by a delayed product launch.

“Our guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 includes an impact of greater than ($0.25) to EPS attributable to a planning assumption of an approximate 15% year-over-year reduction in handset shipments due to COVID-19, including a partial impact from the delay of a global 5G flagship phone launch,” he said in a press release.

Now we don’t know for certain it’s Apple that he’s talking about, but it remains a major Qualcomm customer and is expected to install Qualcomm’s 5G radios inside the iPhone 12, so if a customer has a delayed product launch and that deal is enough to reduce earnings by 15% then it has to be a major hardware manufacturer. And there just aren’t that many around manufacturing product at that kind of scale.

“It’s very likely to be Apple,” Moor Insights & Strategy analyst, Anshel Sag said.

It may only be a short delay

What’s important to note is that Qualcomm’s comment doesn’t favor the idea of a lengthy delay to the product’s introduction, just a ‘partial impact’. This suggests that the device will still appear in 2020, but that its usually predictable on sale date may slip slightly.

Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.





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