Apple might skip the iPhone 18 this year

Apple is expected to unveil several new products at its September event next week, including a folding phone, but the iPhone 18 may not be among them. It would be the first time the company skips a yearly iPhone refresh.

The folding phone — an entry into a market dominated by Samsung and a few Chinese brands — is the big story. If Apple finally builds a foldable, it signals the company is willing to bet on a form factor it's spent years avoiding. Meanwhile, the iPhone itself, still the world's best-selling phone and the one most people actually buy, gets pushed to next year. That's unusual. Apple has treated the iPhone like a reliable cash cow for over a decade; skipping a refresh means they're either waiting for a bigger upgrade, or they've decided the market doesn't need one right now.

Why this matters for us: the folding phone — if it arrives — will be expensive and likely aimed at the same crowd that buys a MacBook Pro for its looks, not the folks who are still making do with a cracked iPhone 12.