iPhone 14 update: Production delayed due to COVID restrictions in China, likely to postpone launch

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Apple's iPhone 14 series is likely to be released in September. This, however, may only be a postponement, since a new report claims that manufacturing has gone behind schedule owing to new COVID-19 shutdowns in China.

According to a Nikkei Asia article, Apple and its suppliers are now attempting to make up for lost time. It claims that at least one iPhone model has gone behind schedule as a result of the month-long COVID-19 lockdowns in China.

Apple has instructed suppliers to accelerate product development in order to make up for lost time. According to the article, the worst-case scenario is that this will have an impact on the manufacturing timeline and initial production quantities of the new phones.

"It's difficult to make up for lost time. Apple and its suppliers are working around the clock to accelerate development," a Nikkei official was cited as saying.

To be more explicit, the iPhone manufacturing delay is claimed to be due to an engineering verification test (EVT). This is the stage in the process where the supplier finalises all of the parts and processes required to start production.

Every year, Apple releases the iPhone in late September. To reach this deadline, the EVT stage should be finished by the end of June. According to the source, one of the models has slipped three weeks behind schedule. While this may not seem significant at the time, if circumstances do not improve, we may see one iPhone 14 model arrive slightly late.

According to the report's cited analysts, Apple will be unable to make up for lost time since China may impose more limitations. A similar circumstance occurred in 2017, when Apple released the iPhone 8 series and the iPhone X at the same time, however the iPhone X was not available until November 2017.