Apple isn’t skipping the iPhone 18 it’s splitting it in half, according to a wave of reports that all landed within the same week. The plan: iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and Apple’s first foldable iPhone launch in September 2026 as usual, while the standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e wait until spring 2027, a roughly six-month gap unlike anything Apple has done with its main lineup before.
The foldable is clearly the reason for the reshuffle. Leaks describe a book-style design that closes to around 5.5 inches and opens to roughly 7.8 inches, running Apple’s new A20 chip built on TSMC’s 2nm process, with pricing expected north of $2,000 reportedly Apple’s most expensive iPhone ever. Because there’s no room for Face ID’s sensor array in a folding body, it’s expected to rely on Touch ID built into the power button instead, iPad-style.
There’s a second reason buried in the split, too: iPhone Air 2. The original Air launched in September 2025 and reportedly underperformed, and rather than risk a second underwhelming Air competing for attention against a $2,000 foldable, Apple is said to be pushing Air 2 into the spring batch alongside the standard models instead.
Nothing here is official, and Apple hasn’t confirmed pricing, names, or the split itself. But if it holds, every iPhone sold this September would start north of $999, meaning holiday shoppers on a budget won’t have a fresh standard iPhone to buy until spring, a real shift in when and how people upgrade.
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