Back in May, Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple’s upcoming “iPhone 12” may not include a pair of EarPods in the box. He claimed the Cupertino firm may do this to drive demand for the company’s popular wireless AirPods earbuds, sold separately.
Now, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives says he agrees with Kuo: “our checks that likely no wired EarPods will come in the iPhone 12 box/packaging”. Ives says the omission of the EarPods will help drive sales of AirPods wireless earbuds to higher heights.
The Wedbush analyst believes that Apple will sell 85 million AirPods units in 2020, compared to 65 million estimated in 2019.
Wedbush also made comments about the upcoming iPhone 12 lineup itself, saying he continues to expect a four-model lineup that includes a mix of 4G and 5G models.
The two different types of ‘5G’ are mmWave and sub-6GHz. Wedbush expects that the US iPhone 12 will support mmWave. While mmWave supports high bandwidth networking it struggles penetrating walls. Sub-6GHz offers better coverage but offers slower speeds. mmWave deployment is also limited globally, as most carriers adopt sub-6GHz for their initial 5G service.
Wedbush has some good news for those worried about coronavirus-related delays. He says that coronavirus-related supply chain disruptions have been addressed and that Apple will be ready to ship the iPhone 12 in early October.
(Via 9to5Mac)
