Apple has announced that it will be holding an event on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with the company widely expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, its first-ever foldable iPhone, and more.
Now that we know the event date, we can make an educated guess about when iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders will begin, but there is a bit of a wrinkle this year. Typically, pre-orders begin on the first Friday after the iPhone event, but this year that would be Friday, September 11, which marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Apple has a history of respecting 9/11. For example, when the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus event fell on Wednesday, September 9 in 2015, pre-orders for those devices began on Saturday, September 12 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, instead of on Friday, September 11. However, we shall see what ultimately happens this year.
In any case, the most likely release date for the iPhone 18 Pro models is Friday, September 18.
According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, pre-orders for the foldable iPhone may begin after pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro models.
Kuo said manufacturing challenges have limited early production of the foldable iPhone, which is rumored to be named iPhone Ultra. As a result, he believes the device may launch at some point after the iPhone 18 Pro models.
In 2017, Apple unveiled the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X on September 12. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus pre-orders began just three days later, while iPhone X pre-orders began six weeks later on Friday, October 27. Likewise, Kuo believes the foldable iPhone may not be available to pre-order until the fourth quarter of 2026.
