According to a new leak, Google's Pixel 4a may not appear until July 13. And even then, it may be some time before the launch.

Also, bad news for those hoping for a Pixel 4a XL to appear alongside the smaller Pixel 4a. But first, let's talk about the release date.

Serial tech leaker Jon Prosser tweeted that the Pixel 4a release, which was delayed from May to June, will be delayed again until July. If this wait seems a bit long, it may be even longer before the phone is actually available for purchase. In a follow-up tweet, Prosser said that the just-black version of the Pixel 4a will not hit store shelves until August 6, and that the blue model will finally be available a few months later on October 1.

On the surface, that seems like a nut, especially in light of Prosser's claim that the units are ready to ship and that this delay is not caused by supply chain issues, as the Pixel 3a has successfully done for Google in the smartphone market, It doesn't have a big enough profile to announce a phone that it will wait a few months to release and expect people to line up to buy it. If you delay the release of a phone, people will shrug their shoulders and buy another model.

However, there may be an explanation for this staggered release method. Google may be relying heavily on the traffic at carrier stores to sell its phones. And now, with the coronavirus pandemic, not many people are turning out to retail stores. Google may be delaying the actual launch of the Pixel 4a until it has a better idea of when stores will open and customers will return. That might explain the "market conditions" that Prosser is referring to.

We would have liked to see Google take the cover off the Pixel 4a next month, as many leaks and rumors all pointed to a June launch, but it appears that may not be the case - Prosser's leaks and predictions tend to be quite reliable.

If you're also expecting Google to release its flagship phone, the Pixel 5, around the usual early October timeframe, that's bad news. Prosser suggests that the phone could also be delayed.

Prosser's tweet provides more clarity on the colors we can expect from the Pixel 4a. And since many Pixel 4a rumors suggested that Google was not going to make a larger budget phone after the Pixel 3a XL failed to garner as much interest as its smaller sibling last year, the news of no XL model is not surprising.

Despite these turbulent times for the smartphone world, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told The Verge that the company is committed to making hardware.

"We are working on hardware with a long-term view. Hardware is hard. And whether you think about the underlying silicon, the display, the camera, or any of those tacks, there are definitely components, and it really takes time to get it right," he said.

Despite these challenges, all the rumors so far indicate that the Pixel 4a is a solid budget phone, with a 5.8-inch OLED display, a punch-hole selfie camera, and Google's computational photography expertise It will have a single rear camera that will likely utilize Google's Computational Photography expertise, and will be powered by a decent Snapdragon 730, though not flagship grade.

A 5G model is not expected, which is not surprising given the Pixel 4a's price of only $349. And Google is expected to remove the squeezable aspect of the active edge used to call Google Assistant.

The Pixel 4a should be able to put up a good fight against Apple's $399 iPhone SE 2020, but it looks like Google's phone will be in the ring much later than we thought.