Apple just locked in September 9 for its next event, and one iPhone is stealing the show

The keynote starts at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, and it will stream on Apple's site, YouTube and the Apple TV app. We made the case for this exact date earlier today, and Bloomberg's lead Apple reporter Mark Gurman is calling it the biggest product introduction Apple will make this year.

The foldable iPhone is the one everyone wants to see

This is also the first keynote under new leadership. John Ternus takes over as CEO on September 1, with Tim Cook moving to executive chairman, which gives Ternus just eight days in the job before his first keynote.

Alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 are expected on stage, though Apple, of course, named none of it.

The replies under Joswiak's post said plenty about where the attention actually is. I scrolled through the first hour of responses and barely found anyone asking about the Pro phones. Nearly every one of them went straight to the foldable, either asking whether it is hiding somewhere in the invite artwork or grumbling that Apple gave nothing away.



That is anecdotal, of course, and one reply thread is not a survey. Still, the pattern held across the early responses, and it tracks with what we already know: a Pro refresh is the expected part, while a first foldable is the thing people are showing up for.

Samsung has had this stage mostly to itself for years, and it has been doing well on it lately. In our comparison of the foldable iPhone against the Galaxy Z Fold 8, we came out saying the two are genuinely hard to line up, since Samsung has more than half a decade of foldable experience while Apple has an ecosystem people are already deep inside.

Samsung also confirmed that Galaxy Z Fold 8 pre-orders in South Korea beat both the Galaxy S26 series and the record-setting Galaxy Note 10 duo, and our own read after a week with the phone was that going back to a regular slab would be hard. So if you already own a Fold 8 or a Fold 8 Ultra, September 9 does not change what is in your pocket. But if your return window is still open, waiting two weeks to see what Apple puts on the table seems like the safer move.

If interested, please check out:

• I just learned 3 things that could make the iPhone Ultra one of 2026's best foldables
• Learn more about what we expect of the Apple iPhone Ultra
• Learn more about what upgrades are expected on the iPhone 18 Pro Max

What September 9 means for your upgrade timing

If you are planning to buy something this fall, these are the dates that matter, and we went through how the calendar shifts things earlier this month:

• September 9: the keynote itself, and the only date Apple has actually confirmed.
• September 12: pre-orders are expected to open here, since that Friday is the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and Apple tends to step around it.
• September 18: retail availability, if Apple sticks to its usual third-Friday pattern.

Only the first one is official, so treat the other two as educated guesses rather than anything you can book time off around.

Ternus has a lot riding on his first keynote

Apple has run this September playbook for so long that the date itself is rarely the interesting part. This year is different, though, and not because of the tagline. A foldable would be the first genuinely new iPhone shape since the iPhone X in 2017, and it is being introduced by a CEO most people outside of tech have never heard speak.

I'm hoping Apple gives the foldable real stage time rather than teasing it toward a quiet December release, because after this many years of rumors, I would personally love to watch someone open it on stage. We find out in two weeks.