Apple's ban on its engineers from traveling to Asia in the wake of the coronavirus has reportedly affected the development of its next-generation iPhone devices that are supposed to be launched in fall this year. The travel restrictions has reportedly delayed the engineering verification test for the 5G iPhones at manufacturing facilities in China. Handset vendors may still be optimistic that 5G smartphones will become mainstream devices sooner or later, but 5G phone shipments will be much lower in first-half 2020 than originally expected, thanks to the outbreak.
Travel restrictions reportedly delaying tests for next-generation iPhone: Apple reportedly has extended the deadline by one month to the end of April for the removal of a set of travel restrictions preventing its engineers from making business trips to Asia, a decision that could have a direct impact on the planned launch of 5G iPhone devices in the second half of 2020, according to industry sources.
5G handset shipment boosts unlikely till 2H20: Shipments from the 5G handset supply chain for the first half of 2020 are expected to be one third of those for the second half, instead of 50% as estimated earlier, as first-quarter sales of 5G smartphones have been hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak and second-quarter shipment prospects remain unclear amid the worsening epidemic, according to industry sources.