The iPhone 9 – which is expected to be the iPhone SE 2 in all but name – could finally land soon, as it has supposedly just entered mass production.

That’s according to Jon Prosser (a leaker with a solid track record), so it could well be true, and if it is then it should mean the phone is announced very soon. This would mean the development of the phone is done and Apple is now simply building up units of it, so that it has enough supply to meet demand when the iPhone 9 is announced.

This is also largely in line with what we’d heard previously, with sources a couple of weeks ago claiming that the iPhone 9 had entered the final stages of engineering validation.

iPhone 9 has just entered mass production.🧻🧻🧻🧻🧻March 18, 2020

The only real reason to doubt any of this, beyond the fact that the information isn’t official, is that the coronavirus had affected some of the factories Apple uses for production. But that was back in January, and all signs seem to suggest that things are getting back on track regarding Apple's Chinese production plants.

The big remaining question is exactly when the iPhone 9 will launch. Sources had previously been pointing to a March announcement, but Apple just announced the iPad Pro 2020 range and if it was going to announce the iPhone 9 in the same month it would make sense to do so at the same time.

So we suspect March is now unlikely, though having said that, March 31 had previously been put forward by a source, and as that date is still almost two weeks away at the time of writing it’s possible.

If not March then the next Apple event that we know of is WWDC 2020 in June, but that’s more software focused and June seems awfully far away for a device that’s already in mass production.

In any case, we’ll let you know as soon as we learn more, and once the iPhone 9 is announced we’ll be sure to bring you a full impression of it.

Check out our full iPhone 11 Pro review

Via PocketNow