iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders rumored to open on a…

Apple has confirmed a September 9 event, and multiple reports say ordering starts three days later, at an unusual hour.

If you want to be first in line for an iPhone 18 Pro, the date to keep free is a Saturday rather than the usual Friday. Multiple reports point to pre-orders opening on September 12.

Apple has announced an event for Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. The iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and the company's first foldable iPhone are widely expected there. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman had earlier placed the event in the second week of September, likely on that Wednesday.

Pre-orders normally begin on the first Friday after an iPhone event, which this year would be September 11, the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That is the reason the schedule is expected to shift.

There is a precedent for exactly this, because the iPhone 6s event also landed on Wednesday, September 9 back in 2015, and Apple opened ordering for those phones on Saturday, September 12 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time rather than on the Friday. So the rumored move is not without precedent.

Reports do not agree on the hour. One has the start time moving from the usual 5 a.m. Pacific to midnight Pacific. Another expects a repeat of the earlier schedule, putting the opening at 7:00 a.m. Central.

As for getting the phone in hand, September 18 looks like the most likely release date, with Friday the 18th or Saturday the 19th both floated if the September 12 pre-order claim holds. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are described as still on target for the typical September cadence.

The foldable is the messier part. It may be unveiled alongside the Pro models but arrive later, and its pre-orders could open on a separate, later date. Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says manufacturing problems have limited early production of the device, which is rumored to carry the iPhone Ultra name, and he believes it may not be orderable until the fourth quarter of 2026. Conflicting reports on those production delays leave an October release on the table.

Whatever timeline applies to the phones should also cover the Apple Watch Series 12 and anything else shown on September 9.

One more thing worth knowing before you budget: an analyst forecast cited by MacRumors puts the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $1,499, a $300 increase over the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Apple has confirmed none of the pricing or the ordering schedule.

The regular iPhone 18 is not expected until the first half of 2027.