surprise announcements like the recent AirPods Max 2<\/a>), and September is its month of choice for its biggest event of the year. The keynote is the starting pistol for the schedule that finishes with the new iPhones going on sale, less than two weeks later.<\/p>\nApple\u2019s biggest keynote of the year always features the iPhone, and usually the Apple Watch plus, sometimes, another product like AirPods. It always falls in roughly the first half of September, mostly on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Very occasionally, it happens on a Monday. And the keynote never falls on Sept. 11.<\/p>\n
This year, that means there are two sets of dates in contention: Tuesday, Sept. 8 or Wednesday, Sept. 9 or the following week, Tuesday, Sept. 15 or Wednesday, Sept. 16.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s already one of these dates we can rule out. Apple doesn\u2019t hold the keynote on the day after Labor Day, the first Monday in September. That\u2019s because it needs to fly members of the press and special guests in to Cupertino from around the world. <\/p>\n
This year, Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 7, so Tuesday, Sept. 8 is out of the question. <\/p>\n
The Familiarity Of Sept. 9<\/p>\n
If Apple chooses Wednesday, Sept. 9, it will be the exact same date as in the last two years (though that date fell on a Monday in 2024 and Tuesday in 2025). <\/p>\n
Alternatively, the following week could mean switching the keynote to the Monday, as in 2024. That would be Monday, Sept. 14, though the Tuesday and Wednesday are still possibilities. <\/p>\n
Apple won\u2019t announce the date for a while yet, and production capabilities may play a part: the predicted folding iPhone Ultra is a new product category and sometimes that can lead to delays. <\/p>\n
That said, the iPhone Air was a new endeavor and appeared bang on time. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to stick my neck out and say the keynote will be on Wednesday, Sept. 9.<\/p>\n
iOS 27 General Release Date<\/p>\n
The software that will be pre-installed on the new iPhones, and will be available on millions of earlier models, will finally switch from public beta to general release. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s usually on or around the Monday following the keynote. If the keynote is Sept. 9, I think the software will land on Monday, Sept. 16 or Tuesday, Sept. 17.<\/p>\n
The date of the release will be revealed during the keynote, almost certainly.<\/p>\n
iPhone 18 Pro Pre-Orders Open<\/p>\n
If Wednesday, Sept. 9 is right, the pre-orders to buy the new products will open soon after. For iPhones, that would mean Friday, Sept. 11, though it\u2019s possible some other products could go on pre-order a day or so before. <\/p>\n
The regular timetable is that the pre-orders will open at 8 a.m. Pacific \u2014 though sometimes it\u2019s possible to jump the line by placing items in the shopping bag online the night before, so you\u2019re ready to seal the deal the moment pre-orders go live. <\/p>\n
iPhone 18 Pro First Reviews Appear<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bit of flexibility here, depending on how many products are revealed at the keynote. The Tuesday and Wednesday before the onsale date is the most popular schedule for Apple, which would mean Tuesday, Sept. 15 or Wednesday, Sept. 16 in this scenario.<\/p>\n
iPhone 18 Pro Release Date<\/p>\n
Apple is at its most consistent when it comes to onsale dates: for the flagship iPhone it\u2019s always the Friday in the week following the keynote. <\/p>\n
That means the release date will be either Friday, Sept. 18 or Friday, Sept. 25. My gut says it will be the first of those two, though don\u2019t be surprised if the iPhone Ultra is announced with the other two iPhones but hits shelves a week or two later to accommodate the complexities of foldable screen production.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the case, the reviews of the iPhone Ultra will appear later, too. In fact, a desire to separate the folding phone\u2019s review debut from the others, and to dominate the news cycle again, seem to me persuasive reasons why the folding iPhone is likely to land a touch later. <\/p>\n
One of the reasons I see the week beginning Monday, Sept. 14 as less likely because it would push the onsale date to Friday, Sept. 25. It\u2019s not impossible, but Apple will want at least the two Pro iPhones to go on sale sooner rather than later. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exactly when will the next iPhones, to replace the iPhone 17 Pro, go on sale? Getty Images Updated,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[304,196886,150427,196888,196890,196891,196889,196887,196884,196885,2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-575847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apple","tag-apple-keynote-september-9","tag-apple-september-event-2026","tag-apple-watch-series-12-launch","tag-cupertino-apple-park-event","tag-folding-iphone-release-date","tag-ios-18-official-release","tag-iphone-18-price","tag-iphone-18-pro-max-launch","tag-iphone-ultra-foldable-rumors","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778388401_978_0x0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n