Updated September 1st with information about an altered pre-order date and its practical implications.
The upcoming devices in the iPhone 16 series are the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. This is your comprehensive guide to what I think will happen and when, prior to Apple providing confirmation. According to a recent source, one aspect of the future timetable will be altered this year: the opening date for pre-orders.
According to the German website Macerkopf, this year’s pre-sale date for the iPhone 16 series is Thursday, September 12, rather than Friday, September 13. It’s unclear how this makes sense.
Since Apple has stated repeatedly that it is not superstitious and has even called a phone the iPhone 13 to show it, we can rule out superstition for the Friday the 13th launch.
Furthermore, it’s scarcely sufficient that the keynote is one day earlier than most people anticipated.
However, I believe there is one reason to believe in the site: the day before pre-orders started last year, you could choose the iPhone you wanted online. The way it operated was that you could select the model of iPhone you wanted until 9 p.m. Pacific the previous evening, then leave it in your online shopping bag so you could click the buy button as soon as pre-orders opened. What a clever way to cross the line this was. It is highly likely that Apple will follow suit this year.
Thus, although pre-orders will still open on Friday, September 13, you can prepare for this by organising your affairs the night before.
Aside from that, there is a certain procedure that Apple takes when releasing the iPhone; it starts with the announcement of the keynote and ends with the devices being delivered to customers.
As soon as something happens, this post will be updated so you can see how accurate or inaccurate I was.
This occurred on Monday, August 26, and it verified the day and time of the upcoming first-ever product unveiling.
VERIFIED!
We were informed that the event will take place on Monday, September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific time in the Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino on the day the invites were sent out.
In a modest boast, I predicted that the event would take place on Monday, September 10, whereas everyone else predicted that it would happen on Tuesday. See my justifications here. I apologise for nagging, but this might be the only time I hear about something like this.
VERIFIED!
This is a regular date, generally. It usually occurs on Friday, the week following the keynote, one week before to the onsale date. That would be Friday, September 15 this year. Although the time may vary, it began at 5 a.m. Pacific last year, which translates to 8 a.m. Eastern and 1 p.m. in the United Kingdom.
This usually takes place the week of the keynote, but I’m betting that it will take place on Monday, September 16, at approximately 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, and 6 p.m. U.K.
The compatibility list is the same, going back to the iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone Xr. If your iPhone can run iOS 17, it can run iOS 18 too.
I anticipate that this will happen early in the following week, on a different day than the Apple Watch reviews. The iPhones belonging to the select press will be seeded shortly after the special event, and reviews may appear on Tuesday, September 17 or Wednesday, September 18, starting at 6 a.m. Pacific, 9 a.m. Eastern, and 2 p.m. U.K., though the exact schedule may vary.
Apple typically releases the iPhones for purchase on Friday of the week after the presentation. This year, everything is supposed to happen exactly on schedule, so I assume that means Friday, September 20. Typically, it’s early morning local time, which means that it’s either 7 or 8 a.m. wherever you are.
And then we begin bracing ourselves for the debut of the iPhone 17! As more information becomes available, I’ll update this post to reflect it. Please check back.