Standard iPhone 18 reportedly pushed to early 2027, breaking Apple's September pattern

If you were waiting for the ordinary, non-Pro iPhone this autumn, the wait now looks longer. Reports citing Apple supplier Pegatron's Q2 2026 earnings call say the standard iPhone 18 will not arrive until the first quarter of 2027, while the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and a foldable "iPhone Ultra" go ahead in September.

Pegatron indirectly confirmed the delay on the call, and said the two Pro models launch next month. Q1 2027 means anywhere between January and March.

That splits a launch that has been a single event for seven generations. The standard iPhone 11 through iPhone 17 all shipped alongside their Pro and Pro Max siblings in September, so a base model arriving four to six months after the flagships is a real change in how Apple sells the line, and it puts the cheapest new iPhone of the cycle on the far side of the holiday season. The reason given is supply.

According to Economic Daily News, Pegatron executives discussed how shortages of memory and other chips are affecting smartphone production and shifting the industry's peak shipping periods. The same shortage of chipsets and memory has been cited as the reason Apple is skipping the iPhone 18 this year, and it has already pushed smartphone prices up. A bottleneck in the semiconductor manufacturing process has also been claimed.

The rest of the calendar clusters around the same window. A lower-end iPhone 18e and an iPhone Air 2 are expected around March 2027, which would put three cheaper iPhones into the first quarter and leave the autumn to the Pro line and the foldable.

The Verge reports that Pegatron's remarks indicate the base model will skip the fall launch and arrive in early 2027, with the rumoured foldable Ultra and the 18 Pro line still on track for the autumn. Bloomberg has reportedly identified 9 September as the likely date for Apple's event.

None of this is confirmation from Apple. Pegatron is a supplier talking to investors about its own production, not Apple announcing a product schedule, and the company's comments are being read as a signal rather than a statement of Apple's plans.