iPhone 18 production planned for late November: 18+18e dual-brand launch next year.
According to Fast Technology on October 14, Apple only launched the iPhone 18 Pro series and the first foldable iPhone Duo at its fall event in September 2026; the standard iPhone 18 was not unveiled.
According to blogger Dingjiao Digital, the iPhone 18 is scheduled to begin production at the end of November, and it and the iPhone 18e will be launched in the spring of 2027. There is currently no news about the iPhone Air 2.
For Apple, the delay of the standard iPhone 18 is driven by multiple practical considerations. The primary reason is the dual pressure of production capacity and cost. The iPhone 18 Pro series will be the first to use TSMC’s 2nm chip, the A20 Pro. In the initial stage of the new process, production capacity and yield are limited. Apple needs to prioritize the supply of the more profitable Pro series to avoid the standard version competing for limited assembly resources.
The continued surge in memory prices is also a key factor. The spot prices of DRAM and NAND have increased by more than 300% in the past two quarters. For iPhones with huge shipment volumes, even a slight increase in the price of a single component will significantly impact the overall profit of the device when accumulated to millions of units.
Delaying the standard version release can both distribute the concentrated demand for components such as memory and give the supply chain room to adjust procurement configurations. In terms of hardware configuration, the iPhone 18 is expected to be equipped with an A20 chip, with its RAM upgraded from 8GB to 9GB, and it will come pre-installed with iOS 27.
However, due to memory limitations, the AI experience of the standard iPhone 18 may differ somewhat from the Pro series. It’s worth noting that the starting price of the iPhone 17 on Apple’s official website has risen to 6799 yuan, and the starting price of the iPhone 17e has risen to 5299 yuan.
As flagship iterations, the starting prices of the iPhone 18e and iPhone 18 are no less than 5,299 yuan and 6,799 yuan respectively, further raising the overall pricing threshold.
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