iPhone release schedule set to change forever in 2026/2027, confirms Apple insider

After over a decade of debuting its latest iPhones in the fall, Apple's reportedly shaking things up starting with the iPhone 18 release schedule. According to Mark Gurman in Bloomberg's "Power On" newsletter, Apple plans to switch to a twice-yearly release schedule, with three high-end models — the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and rumored iPhone Fold — set for the fall of 2026 while the iPhone 18 and cheaper iPhone 18e will launch in spring 2027.

"I expect this pattern to continue for years to come, with Apple launching between five and six new models annually," Gurman said.

Alongside the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e, we could also see Apple debut a revamped iPhone Air, Gurman said, though other rumors claim Apple's scrapped plans to debut its ultra-thin iPhone Air 2 in spring 2027.

We've been hearing chatter since May that Apple plans to split up the iPhone 18 line's release, but as the biggest name in Apple leaks, Gurman adds a heap of credibility to these rumors. Cramming all of the best iPhones into the fall release window "eventually became a burden," he said, giving Apple "fewer opportunities to spread out revenue across the year" while also straining its marketing and engineering teams. Between the company's stumbling with its rollout of Apple Intelligence in 2024 and delaying its revamped Siri voice assistant, the current release schedule's pain points only became more apparent.

If this pans out, Apple will formalize a new iPhone release schedule where high-end models arrive in September and the more affordable handsets land six months later. From a business standpoint, this schedule makes sense since it incentivizes users to buy Apple's more powerful, and thus more expensive, phones first. That leaves users who hold off for the vanilla iPhone 18 or iPhone 18e with six months to drool over the new features Apple shows off with the Pro models. Even when they upgrade, they'll likely miss out on whatever perks end up being exclusive to Apple's high-end phones.

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