An Apple store in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Photo: IC

Chinese netizens are looking forward to the launch of Apple's iPhone 12 at the scheduled September promotional event, though speculations predict otherwise.

The much anticipated "Time Flies" event set to begin at 1 am on Wednesday (Beijing Time) has raised discussion on Chinese social media, hours before the event kickoff, though there has been speculation that the new flagship phone iPhone 12 may not be released at the event.

The topic #iPhone 12 has received 2.8 billion views and 797,000 comments on China's Twitter-like social media Weibo.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the event will not include new iPhones, and will instead focus on new Apple Watch and iPad Air models. 

Kuo believes that iPhone 12 models will enter mass shipment in October at the earliest and a launch event will be held in October. He expects that the entire iPhone 12 lineup will support 5G. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max may come in 5.4 inch and 6.1 inch screen sizes and iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max may come in 6 inch and 6.7 inch display sizes.

He also predicted that the iPhone 12 models will not support a 120Hz refresh rate, a function that provides smoother screen animations. 5.4-inch iPhone 12 is also said to feature a slightly narrower notch. 

That said, many Chinese netizens are still looking forward to the announcement of iPhone 12 at the event.

"Without iPhone 12, I figure that that Apple's stock price will fall," commented a Chinese netizen named as haohaoshangbandetangmu.

"Apple will definitely release new phones at the fall event. It's impossible to break the routine. Anyway, let's wait and see what will happen at the online event," commented another netizen.

Some netizens however are disappointed at the rumored notch design and the lack of 120Hz refresh rate.

"Why can't iPhone get rid of the notch while domestic smartphones already support the full screen? " asked a netizen named lijunjie.

Others advocated their support to Huawei phones as the Apple event follows the US government's relentless ban on Huawei which took effect on Tuesday, which prohibited Huawei to buy any microchips made with any US technology.

"Does the US want to sell their iPhone 12 in China after what they did to Huawei? Whether or not there will be iPhone 12 tonight, I am not interested at all," commented Chinese netizen bluebugu.

"Apple planned a press conference right after the US government cut Huawei's chip supply. Deliberately?" commented Chinese netizen emma.