It is fair to say that 2020 was an extraordinary year in almost every respect, and even Apple, a manufacturing powerhouse, was not immune from the blow to its supply chain from the coronavirus. However, the iPhone 13 will reportedly go on sale in September, when things will return to normal.

This year's iPhone 12 was officially unveiled at a virtual event on October 13. And while two devices, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, went on sale a week later, the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max were not available for purchase until a month after the event.

Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst who is adept at getting key details right, predicted no different challenges for Apple this year; according to MacRumors, the analyst said that production of the iPhone 13 with the Apple A15 chip is expected to return to a "normal timeframe." This means that the iPhone 13 will be released in September, with mass production in the summer.

On one level, this is not at all surprising; it was clearly not Apple's intention to delay iPhone 12 production, and the vaccine progress looks promising enough that anyone can expect the coronavirus news to fall off a cliff by next summer .

But we will never know that for sure. Perhaps the bigger takeaway here is that Apple has clearly learned how to get around the problems of remote labor and socially distant factories. Given the past year, it is quite remarkable that not only was the iPhone 12 delayed by only one month, but that Apple found time to produce the Apple Watch 6, Apple Watch SE, AirPods Max, HomePod mini, and Apple Silicon MacBook by the end of the year.

In other words, even if the vaccine intake is not as smooth as we might expect, it would not be surprising if Apple had a few tricks up its sleeve to get production back to normal in the unlikely event that it does.

Kuo also noted that despite the delays and global slowdown, demand for the iPhone 12 remains strong. This is especially true for the iPhone 12 Pro model, which is suffering from shortages due to difficulties in sourcing camera components, although some say the iPhone 12 mini is struggling to set the world on fire.