Apple may not launch iPhone 18 next year because it has other plans
Every year since 2007, Apple has released at least one new iPhone. Over the course of time, more models were added to offer more advanced features, including larger screens. From one to two, two to four, four to now five, the iPhone has grown big time both in scale and capability. But there is always room for more – like, for instance, where is Apple's foldable iPhone? A new report suggests that it is almost ready and coming soon.advertisementOver the weekend, The Information reported about Apple's highly secretive plans for its 2026-2027 iPhone launch cycle. If the company sticks with its current naming scheme, the subject of interest here is the iPhone 18 series. This lineup, which, given Apple's regular launch schedule, will come in 2026 because this year, we'll get the iPhone 17. Yes, we are getting too far ahead of ourselves, but here is why it is a big deal: per the report, Apple will launch its maiden foldable next year.Whether it is called iPhone 18 Fold or something else is not clear at the time of writing, but it is so big – understandably – that its arrival is causing Apple to make a few big changes around how it usually launches iPhones. All modern-day iPhones are launched in September. At least that is the case with the top-dollar ones anyway. There are outliers like the iPhone 16e with their own separate launch window, but they are few and far between. But with the iPhone 18 series, Apple is prepping as many as six models. These are: iPhone 18, iPhone 18e, iPhone 18 Air, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone 18 Fold (please note that all this is tentative).advertisement
The report says, because such an expansive lineup may create confusion, Apple is looking to split the lineup into two with four of the models, iPhone 18 Air, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone 18 Fold, set for launch in September 2026 while the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e could be pushed to early 2027. It makes sense to have the latest and greatest iPhones get all the limelight ahead of the holiday season, even as the promise of more affordable iPhones coming, keeps things fresh and exciting. The move should allow Apple to spread out its products evenly, putting out clear demarcation in terms of specs and pricing. It seems like a great marketing move. There is a chance that Apple might increase the prices. Its foldable is expected to be quite pricey anyway, so while the strategy may seem risky, Apple must have some plan to offset it, if the purported shakeup is in the works indeed.The alleged iPhone 18 Fold is tipped to have a 5.7-inch cover display and a near 8-inch folding one. The book-style foldable (think Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold) will be 4.5–4.8mm thick when unfolded and have Face ID biometrics, reports say. It is, of course, advisable to take all this information with a pinch of salt until Apple doesn't announce something concrete about it.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business Standard
Apple unveils iOS redesign amid AI delays, investor worries, trade woes
After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech's pivotal race to capitalise on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during an annual developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology. The presummer rite, which attracted thousands of developers from nearly 60 countries to Apple's Silicon Valley headquarters, subdued compared with the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event in the last two years. Apple highlighted plans for more AI tools designed to simplify people's lives and make its products even more intuitive. It also provided an early glimpse at the biggest redesign of its iPhone software in a decade. In doing so, Apple executives refrained from issuing bold promises of breakthroughs that punctuated recent conferences, prompting CFRA analyst Angelo Zino to deride the event as a 'dud' in a research note. More AI, but what about Siri? In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri — a goal that has yet to be realised. 'This work needed more time to reach our high-quality bar,' Craig Federighi, Apple's top software executive, said Monday at the outset of the conference. The company didn't provide a precise timetable for when Siri's AI upgrade will be finished but indicated it won't happen until next year at the earliest. "The silence surrounding Siri was deafening," said Forrester Research analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee said. 'No amount of text corrections or cute emojis can fill the yawning void of an intuitive, interactive AI experience that we know Siri will be capable of when ready. We just don't know when that will happen. The end of the Siri runway is coming up fast, and Apple needs to lift off.' Is Apple, with its 'liquid glass,' still a trendsetter? The showcase unfolded amid nagging questions about whether Apple has los t some of the mystique and innovative drive that has made it a tech trendsetter during its nearly 50-year history. Instead of making a big splash as it did with the Vision Pro headset and its AI suite, Apple took a mostly low-key approach that emphasised its effort to spruce up the look of its software with a new design called 'Liquid Glass" while also unveiling a new hub for its video games and new features like a 'Workout Buddy' to help manage physical fitness. Apple executives promised to make its software more compatible with the increasingly sophisticated computer chips that have been powering its products while also making it easier to toggle between the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 'Our product experience has become even more seamless and enjoyable,' Apple CEO Tim Cook told the crowd as the 90-minute showcase wrapped up. IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said Apple seemed to be largely using Monday's conference to demonstrate the company still has a blueprint for success in AI, even if it's going to take longer to realise the vision that was presented a year ago. 'This year's event was not about disruptive innovation, but rather careful calibration, platform refinement and developer enablement —positioning itself for future moves rather than unveiling game-changing technologies,' Jeronimo said. Apple's next operating system will be iOS 26 Besides redesigning its software. Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That means the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this autumn will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 — as it would be under the previous naming approach that has been used since the device's 2007 debut. The iOS 26 upgrade is expected to be released in September around the same time Apple traditionally rolls out the next iPhone models. Playing catchup in AI Apple opened the proceedings with a short video clip featuring Federighi speeding around a track in a Formula 1 race car. Although it was meant to promote the June 27 release of the Apple film, 'F1' starring Brad Pitt, the segment could also be viewed as an unintentional analogy to the company's attempt to catch up to the rest of the pack in AI technology. While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, the delays in a souped-up Siri became so glaring that the chastened company stopped promoting it in its marketing campaigns earlier this year. While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works. Samsung, Apple's biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone. Regulatory and trade challenges Besides grappling with innovation challenges, Apple also faces regulatory threats that could siphon away billions of dollars in revenue that help finance its research and development. A federal judge is currently weighing whether proposed countermeasures to Google's illegal monopoly in search should include a ban on long-running deals worth USD 20 billion annually to Apple while another federal judge recently banned the company from collecting commissions on in-app transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system. On top of all that, Apple has been caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's trade war with China, a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California, company. Cook successfully persuaded Trump to exempt the iPhone from tariffs during the president's first administration, but he has had less success during Trump's second term, which seems more determined to prod Apple to make its products in the US. The multidimensional gauntlet facing Apple is spooking investors, causing the company's stock price to plunge by 20 per cent so far this year — a decline that has erased about USD 750 billion in shareholder wealth. After beginning the year as the most valuable company in the world, Apple now ranks third behind longtime rival Microsoft, another AI leader, and AI chipmaker Nvidia. Apple's shares closed down by more than 1 per cent on Monday — an early indication the company's latest announcements didn't inspire investors.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Did Apple fire Jon Yongfook, designer behind Liquid Glass UI? Here's the truth behind viral claim
Claims about Apple firing a Jon Yongfook, allegedly the lead designer of the Liquid Glass UI unveiled at WWDC 2025, surfaced on social media on Monday. Yongfook, an influencer on social media, posted about being fired. However, now several social media users are saying that Yongfook never worked with Apple. 'I was fired by Apple today. Me and my design team have spent the last 18 months tirelessly testing different levels of gaussian blur on backgrounds when foreground elements are in focus. If you are looking for experts in the blur, glass liquid, grass or fur UI space, lmk,' Yongfook said on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. Read More: Russia fines Apple for violating 'LGBT propaganda' law, TASS reports His followers were quick to note that Yongfook never worked at Apple, and his tweet seemed satirical. 'Media has picked up this tweet and reported that Apple has fired their lead designer Jon Yong Fook for Liquid Glass design. Jon is an entrepreneur that runs SaaS products, and did not work at Apple's design. It's their in his bio Media did not even bother to check his bio...' one person tweeted. Yongfook is a serial entrepreneur, not a documented Apple employee. He founded Bannerbear, a SaaS for automated image generation, and previously worked at Aviva. His website and LinkedIn focus on startups, with no mention of Apple. Read More: 'Steve Jobs would have fired everyone': Apple's Liquid Glass design triggers online backlash 'Senior Digital leader with over 15 years of global technology and business experience at both multinational organizations and startups. Seasoned entrepreneur and technology innovator with two successful exits. Experience in industries such as Financial Services, Ecommerce and Consumer Internet. Working experience in markets including Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore,' his bio on LinkedIn states. Apple unveiled Liquid Glass, a translucent, dynamic UI for iOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, and other platforms, led by Craig Federighi and Alan Dye. It features Gaussian blur, rounded controls, and adaptive navigation. Apple's Human Interface Design team, under Dye, developed Liquid Glass, with no mention of Yongfook.
Economic Times
3 hours ago
- Economic Times
France's Mistral unveils its first 'reasoning' AI model
French artificial intelligence startup Mistral on Tuesday announced a so-called "reasoning" model it said was capable of working through complex problems, following in the footsteps of top US developers. Available immediately on the company's platforms as well as the AI platform Hugging Face, the Magistral "is designed to think things through -- in ways familiar to us," Mistral said in a blog post. The AI was designed for "general purpose use requiring longer thought processing and better accuracy" than its previous generations of large language models (LLMs), the company other "reasoning" models, Magistral displays a so-called "chain of thought" that purports to show how the system is approaching a problem given to it in natural means users in fields like law, finance, healthcare and government would receive "traceable reasoning that meets compliance requirements" as "every conclusion can be traced back through its logical steps", Mistral said. The company's claim gestures towards the challenge of so-called "interpretability" -- working out how AI systems arrive at a given response. Since they are "trained" on gigantic corpuses of data rather than directly programmed by humans, much behaviour by AI systems remains impenetrable even to their also vaunted improved performance in software coding and creative writing by Magistral. Competing "reasoning" models include OpenAI's o3, some versions of Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude, or Chinese challenger DeepSeek's R1. The idea that AIs can "reason" was called into question this week by Apple -- the tech giant that has struggled to match achievements by leaders in the Apple researchers published a paper called "The Illusion of Thinking" that claimed to find "fundamental limitations in current models" which "fail to develop generalizable reasoning capabilities beyond certain complexity thresholds".
