iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra: When is the Next Apple Event?

Thursday August 13, 2026 7:11 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

It is now mid-August, meaning that Apple's annual iPhone event is just around the corner. Below, we take a look at when the event might be held this year.

Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature
This September, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and an all-new foldable iPhone that will reportedly be named the iPhone Ultra. The regular iPhone 18, a lower-end iPhone 18e, and the iPhone Air 2 are not expected to be announced until around March 2027, as part of a new launch strategy.

Australian media outlet ChannelNews today published an "exclusive" report claiming that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra event will take place on Tuesday, September 8. However, this date is questionable, as Apple has never held its iPhone event one day after Labor Day. Historically, there has always been at least a two-day gap between the holiday and the event, so it is more likely to fall on Wednesday, September 9 or later this year.

If the event were to fall on Tuesday, September 8 or Wednesday, September 9 this year, pre-orders would ordinarily begin on Friday, September 11. However, that Friday will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, so Apple may want to avoid starting pre-orders that day out of respect. Perhaps for this reason, when the iPhone 6s event fell on Wednesday, September 9 in 2015, pre-orders began on Saturday, September 12.

It would be a lot smoother for Apple to skip the week of Labor Day and the 9/11 anniversary entirely and hold its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra event the following week instead. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that the event will take place in the first half of September, which would make Tuesday, September 15 the latest possible date.

If the event falls on Monday, September 14 or Tuesday, September 15, then pre-orders would likely begin on Friday, September 18, and the devices would likely launch Friday, September 25. It remains to be seen if the iPhone Ultra is available at the same time as the iPhone 18 Pro models, but it might be limited to the U.S. at first either way.

Since 2020, iPhone event videos have been pre-recorded, but in recent years Apple has invited select reporters to the Steve Jobs Theater to watch the video in person. Afterwards, attendees receive hands-on time with the new devices.

The table below provides an overview of dates for the last six iPhone events, with 2020 being an outlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

iPhone Series	Announcement Date	Event Date	Delta (Days)
iPhone 17	Tuesday, August 26, 2025	Tuesday, September 9, 2025	14
iPhone 16	Monday, August 26, 2024	Monday, September 9, 2024	14
iPhone 15	Tuesday, August 29, 2023	Tuesday, September 12, 2023	14
iPhone 14	Wednesday, August 24, 2022	Wednesday, September 7, 2022	14
iPhone 13	Tuesday, September 7, 2021	Tuesday, September 14, 2021	7
iPhone 12	Tuesday, October 6, 2020	Tuesday, October 13, 2020	7

Related Roundup: iPhone 18 Pro

Tags: Apple Event Guide, iPhone Ultra Guide

Buyer's Guide: iPhone 18 Pro (Buy Now)

Related Forum: iPhone

Top Rated Comments

iMac The Knife

12 weeks ago

I'm going out on a limb here and say it will most likely be sometime in September.

Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Core.2

12 weeks ago

I hope that deep burgundy color is real. That is gorgeous.
There is a 18 PM with my name on it somewhere lol

close enough....

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Yourbigpalal83

12 weeks ago

not to sound disrespectful to 9/11 but i don't think its that big of an issue anymore to release a phone for pre orders on that day. Its in no way shape or form disrespectful. Plus, its 25 years later. Its not like they are launching a new iphone on 9/11 1 years later or even 10 years later.

Its the same thing with December 7th and Pearl Harbor. Like i dont see a problem with a company putting out a movie or item for sale on December 7th. I think after 20-25 years you remember the day and what happened, but you dont run your entire life around it. Life has to move on and should. Its actually healthy.

If apple for what ever reason released a new device on June 6th, most people wouldn't even think about it, let alone say its disrespectful because its D-Day.

Plenty of Movies and items have come out on April 14th-15th, both being the anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic and Abraham Lincolns Assassination! No one doesn't go to a store to buy something on those dates because of that.

The only difference is, 9/11 is far more recent then those other events. Its also not a federal holiday. Schools are still open, mail still gets delivered, etc so why shoulden't apple or any other company set up pre orders?

Also, You can buy stuff on line from apple any day of the year. You cant go into an apple store on Christmas (last time i checked) but you can still order an iphone or ipad from them online Christmas day. Your not going to get it same day, but i promise you apple sees far more sales on christmas day itself then most other days of the year.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Delivered

12 weeks ago

not to sound disrespectful to 9/11 but i don't think its that big of an issue anymore to release a phone for pre orders on that day. Its in no way shape or form disrespectful. Plus, its 25 years later. Its not like they are launching a new iphone on 9/11 1 years later or even 10 years later.

Its the same thing with December 7th and Pearl Harbor. Like i dont see a problem with a company putting out a movie or item for sale on December 7th. I think after 20-25 years you remember the day and what happened, but you dont run your entire life around it. Life has to move on and should. Its actually healthy.

If apple for what ever reason released a new device on June 6th, most people wouldn't even think about it, let alone say its disrespectful because its D-Day.

Plenty of Movies and items have come out on April 14th-15th, both being the anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic and Abraham Lincolns Assassination! No one doesn't go to a store to buy something on those dates because of that.

The only difference is, 9/11 is far more recent then those other events. Its also not a federal holiday. Schools are still open, mail still gets delivered, etc so why shoulden't apple or any other company set up pre orders?

Also, You can buy stuff on line from apple any day of the year. You cant go into an apple store on Christmas (last time i checked) but you can still order an iphone or ipad from them online Christmas day. Your not going to get it same day, but i promise you apple sees far more sales on christmas day itself then most other days of the year.

That’s an interesting point. What’s the limit on how long a nation should mourn an attack and avoid glitzy events on and what’s the role of multinational corporations to honor that? I feel like we’ve decided we don’t need to think about Pearl Harbor as much but when did that happen? Also not sure if other countries are the same or not. Like are you able to launch anything in Iraq? You’d have to avoid mongols sacking Bagdad, fall of Babylon, first gulf war, Iraq war. And hundreds of other days where bad stuff happened in the past 3000 years.

And with global companies you’d have even more days to avoid.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

vegetassj4

12 weeks ago

"When is the Next Apple Event?"

I don't know, but it will be the most pro event that they've ever had.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Harthag

12 weeks ago

The reason for the US-only launch of the Ultra is probably that Europeans don’t like creases in their displays, and they also don’t like having to unfold the phone just to get a slightly larger display when you can get almost the same benefit by simply rotating an iPhone Pro Max.

What does location have to do with one's preference on display / crease and use-case? I actually laughed out loud, thanks for that! 😂

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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