The lack of news from Apple's Q3 earnings release today (July 27) may be good news for those looking for hints about the iPhone 13 launch.

Apple did not provide any specific guidance on the iPhone 13 launch during its briefing with Wall Street analysts. Apple rarely comments on future products. However, the lack of news surrounding the upcoming iPhone release was a far cry from Apple's June quarter report a year ago.

If you think back to 2020, that one-year conference call began with Apple telling Wall Street analysts that the fall iPhone launch would take place "a few weeks later" than the usual September. Indeed, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro did not appear until October 2020, with the other two iPhone models appearing a few months later.

That did not hurt Apple's iPhone sales in the long run. These days, Apple believes that it is "heartened by customer response to the iPhone 12 lineup. However, the memory of that pandemic-inspired delay is still making some people timid about this year's round of product announcements.

History did not repeat itself in 2021. Apple hinted at supply constraints affecting the iPhone and iPad in the September quarter, but that is far from enough to tell investors and customers to expect a delay. Even with supply constraints, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Wall Street that Apple "expects very strong double-digit sales growth year over year in the September quarter," although not to the level of the just-completed June quarter.

Those who support the rumor that Apple is targeting a September launch for the next iPhone probably came away from this earnings call as confident as before.

Edward Jones technology analyst Logan Purk noted that the supply constraints Apple is talking about involve older components. He said, "Components in advanced or cutting-edge nodes don't seem to be experiencing supply constraints."

The iPhone 13 should be fine, at least initially, since Apple plans its orders well in advance, Purk added: "I think this will ultimately affect how many iPhones they potentially sell and not the actual release date."

It will be hard to beat Apple's post-Q3 mood: for the three months through June, Apple's sales rose 36% to $81.4 billion, with double-digit growth in all product categories. For iPhones in particular, strong demand for the iPhone 12 pushed sales up 50% to just under $39.6 billion.

"Obviously, the product itself is great," Cook told analysts. The iPhone 12 lineup was a huge leap forward, bringing 5G (to Apple phones), the A14 Bionic (chip), and a lot of other great features that customers love."

Strong sales, such as those traditionally enjoyed by the iPhone 12, could mean that Apple's next phone will not find so receptive a user base. But Cook told analysts that 5G could fluctuate as more people consider upgrading to the new wireless network standard. As such, recent reports have suggested that Apple is increasing production of the iPhone 13 to meet the increased demand for 5G phones (Apple has yet to confirm this report). (Apple has not yet confirmed this report and did not address it in this week's analyst conference call.)

Other than the iPhone, Apple's biggest revenue growth was in its services division, where sales for the June quarter were up 33% to just under $17.5 billion. This was boosted by the fact that Apple now has the largest installed base of active devices in the company's history. Apple also saw the number of paying subscribers for its various services jump to 700 million, up 150 million from the same period last year.

Just because Apple chose not to give specific warnings about the iPhone launch as it did a year ago does not mean that the iPhone 13 launch will go off without a hitch. With the aforementioned supply constraints, Apple indicated that any setback in the COVID-19 recovery could change the outlook. But for the most part, all appears quiet on the iPhone 13 font - and that is good news at the moment.