New reports from Apple assembly plants and suppliers in Asia indicate that iPhone production will not improve until after the new year, which could be bad news for the iPhone 9.

We knew that the coronavirus was going to affect the iPhone SE 2 / iPhone 9, but this was later confirmed by Apple.

"Due to two primary factors, we do not expect to achieve the revenue guidance we provided in the March quarter," Apple wrote in a statement to Metro.

"The supply of iPhones worldwide will be temporarily constrained. Our iPhone manufacturing partner sites are located outside of Hubei Province, and while all of these facilities have resumed operations, the ramp-up has been slower than we had anticipated."

The company also said that it is "working with our partners to ensure that we are able to meet our revenue guidance for the third quarter.

However, according to Ming-Chi Kuo's latest report from the China Coronavirus frontline, the situation may not improve until after the new year MacRumors reports a new research note from a well-known Apple analyst, which states that Cupertino's production throughput and claims that Cupertino will have to wait until the second quarter to see a "significant" improvement in production throughput.

That's bad news for those looking to get Apple's next low-priced compact phone, which Kuo says may only cost $399, but other rumors point to a $349 price tag. Both are great prices compared to the iPhone 11 and future iPhone 12. That means that, like the original iPhone SE, this new lower-priced model will probably be a best-seller.

However, if the phones don't ship from the factory fast enough, they will have a hard time becoming best sellers. According to Kuo, it is taking even longer than originally expected for employees to return to work, which will cause further delays in manufacturing.

Parts inventory levels are also suffering from supply problems: iPhone lens manufacturer Genius Electronic Optical only has about a month's worth of parts and does not plan to resume significant production until "May at the earliest."

Kuo has claimed in the past that Apple is holding out for a spring launch of the iPhone SE 2 or iPhone 9. Blogger and rumor expert Evan Blass has claimed that the iPhone 9 will be released around mid-March. Bloomberg's report also echoes other rumors, stating that iPhone SE 2 production will ramp up in February for a March release.

However, if Kuo's latest report is true, it seems unlikely that all of this will come to pass. Perhaps Apple will delay the launch until it knows it can meet demand. Right now, however, there is not enough manufacturing capacity or available parts to guarantee the normal production of a blockbuster phone like the iPhone SE 2.

An even bigger question is whether the iPhone 12 will suffer from the aftereffects of the coronavirus. It is not illogical to think that current supply problems will create a ripple effect affecting Apple's 2020 flagship.

Of course, Apple has not announced a launch event for the iPhone 9 or iPhone SE 2, so there will be no "delay" in the strict sense of the word; remember that all the rumors about an iPhone SE 2 release date are merely rumors. However, the coronavirus appears to be affecting major product launches, not only for Apple, but for other industries as well.