There is a need for speed in China as a report today suggests that production of this year’s iPhone have been delayed.

This is according to Nikkei which reports that lockdowns in China have pushed the production schedule of the forthcoming Apple smartphones back by a significant margin.

First off Pegatron, which are responsible for the production phase known as New Product Introduction, have suffered some delays. Pegatron had to go on hiatus for weeks due to lockdowns and was only given permission to resume operations under closed-loop management on 16th May.

But the real kicker comes with the engineering verification test stage of production. During this phase a bill of materials is drawn up to calculate the manufacturing costs of a device. One of the iPhone models set to come out this year is reportedly three weeks behind schedule. There are reportedly four new iPhones being released in 2022.

This means that the EVT process needs to be sped up or it will not be complete by the end of June when new iPhones should be ready for mass production.

“If the development process can be sped up and proceed to the next level around the end of June or beginning of July, then it should still be possible to meet the mass production deadline of early September,” an unnamed source familiar with the matter told Nikkei.

It’s unclear which of the four models of iPhone are currently delayed, but we doubt this will bother Apple or its fans. The firm could announce a new handset and then simply release it later than the other three iterations or indeed push the entire launch back.

This delay doesn’t look like it will stop iPhone production entirely, but should COVID-19 lockdowns return to areas where these phones are being manufactured, that outlook will surely change.