In summary:
- Macworld reports that Apple’s foldable iPhone remains on track for a September launch, according to respected leaker Mark Gurman.
- This contradicts earlier Nikkei Asia reports suggesting potential delays until December 2026 or 2027 due to engineering challenges.
- The device’s complexity may result in limited initial supply, though launch timing isn’t definitively final with five months remaining.
Apple’s biggest launch of the year is still scheduled to take place in September, according to a respected leaker. This report follows claims that the product faced manufacturing difficulties and could be delayed for months, potentially pushing shipments back to December or even early 2027.
In an article for Bloomberg this week, Mark Gurman says Apple’s first folding phone “is on track to arrive during the company’s normal iPhone launch period later this year.” That launch period is September, which is when almost every flagship iPhone (as opposed to the budget models, which come out in spring) has been announced since 2012, and most have been shipped.
There have been a couple of exceptions. In 2020, the iPhone 12 event was pushed back to October as a result of the COVID pandemic, and two of the models didn’t ship until November. Similarly, 2022’s iPhone 14 Plus didn’t ship until October despite being announced as usual in September.
Earlier this week, Nikkei Asia published an article predicting that 2026 could see a similar or even worse delay as a result of “setbacks in the engineering test phase.” The outlet cited multiple “sources briefed on the matter” and named the complexity of foldable devices, rather than current component shortages, as the reason why, in the worst-case scenario, the first iPhone Fold shipments could be delayed by “months.” Apple shares fell by more than 5 percent after this story appeared.
And no wonder. As we’ve seen, even a delay of two months would be as bad as anything we’ve seen in the past 14 years. A delay of three would take us up to the December timeframe predicted by a lone Barclays analyst last month, while four would push the Fold’s launch back to 2027.
But Gurman does not agree with this assessment: Indeed, he specifically refers to his sources “rebutting” the concerns, and links to the Nikkei article. He acknowledges the Fold’s complexity and admits that supplies are likely to be limited in the first few weeks after it comes out, but insists Apple “is currently operating with a plan to put the device on sale around the same time–or very soon after–the new non-foldable models.”
Of course, nothing is certain, and there’s still five months to go until the scheduled launch of the Fold. (Or iPhone Ultra.) With this in mind, Gurman concedes that the timing of the launch “isn’t final.”
For all the latest news and rumors as we head towards this high-stakes launch, bookmark our regularly updated iPhone Fold superguide.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.