The iPhone 17 unveiling is only weeks away, and iPhone 18 rumors are starting to pick up. A new report corroborates previous claims that the iPhone 18 launch lineup will drop a surprisingly important model.
Base iPhone 18 will reportedly not be part of fall 2026 launch lineup
After several years of very similar iPhone lineups year after year, Apple has big changes in store starting this fall.
The iPhone 17 line will feature a new ultra-thin ‘Air’ model that replaces the Plus model and could sway a lot of typical Pro users.
But then next year even more model shakeups will happen. Over the weekend, ET News corroborated a claim that we’ve seen before.
Per their report, next year’s iPhone 18 launch will be missing a surprising model: the base iPhone 18.
An iPhone 18 launch with no iPhone 18? That’s right.
Apple is expected to go ultra-premium with the fall lineup, offering four high-end models:
- iPhone 18 Air
- iPhone 18 Pro
- iPhone 18 Pro Max
- iPhone 18 Fold
The base iPhone 18 isn’t going away altogether. Rather, it will simply be pushed out of the fall lineup and launch the following spring instead.
Reporting from Wayne Ma and Ming-Chi Kuo has previously detailed these lineup shifts.
And now ET News says that Apple has already started telling some suppliers about the change so they can plan accordingly.
It’s the latest evidence of a big change that’s coming, with Apple reportedly launching only higher-end iPhones in the fall, followed by lower cost models in the spring.
In this case, that means the base iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e will arrive in spring 2027, following a fall 2026 launch of the rest of the iPhone 18 line.
What do you think of Apple dropping the base iPhone 18 from the fall lineup? Let us know in the comments.
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