As expected, on October 13 at the second press conference (for the second half of the year), Apple announced the release of four new iPhone 12 models, namely the iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 mini (in order of specifications).

Impact analysis

           Although Apple releases new phone models every year, it so happens that 2020 coincided with the transition of the communication generation from 4G to 5G; and iPhone specifications have a critical impact on the penetration rate of 5G smartphones. This series of phones is believed to support the broadest 5G frequency bands on the day of their release — apart from the four models that have been fully upgraded to 5G systems — supporting a total of twenty 5G frequency bands. Such a move shows that Apple should continue to lead the market through its active introduction of 5G. Users will be able to buy an iPhone from US$699 based on their choice of model and storage capacity. If we compare recent years' pricing strategy, such a price-tag is very close to a new model's low-level pricing. From this, we can view iPhone sales and promotion positively.

          In addition to the mobile phone itself, the exclusion of gifts, chargers and wired headsets in the box is also a major change this year. In the PCB industry, TWS has already become a trend over the past two years and has lead to an increase in revenue of the related supply chain,while the integration of rigid and flexible boards is typically representative. Although Apple has officially cancelled these extras for environmental protection reasons, this move will drive competitors to follow suit. As such, this should not only help increase overall TWS sales but give a boost to Apple AirPods, which rank first in market share but are showing a decline in development. On the whole, the iPhone contains a relatively high number of applications from Taiwanese manufacturers. If we view it from the perspective of innovation for specifications or strategies in communication systems, application processors, sensing systems, headset products, etc., they are all highly connected to PCB, which should lead to a positive driving effect.