Today Apple held its annual fall event, at which new iPhones and other accessories are unveiled, debuted, or otherwise announced. A couple of things were notably different this year. One, only the Pro and Pro Max versions of the new iPhone were announced; the iPhone 18, iPhone 18e, and iPhone Air 2 will have to wait (presumably for the spring). Two, the person doing the announcing was John Ternus, in his first event as Apple’s CEO. He was… fine. Certainly way more natural than Tim Cook ever was.
Cook made a brief cameo in a CEO handoff, part of an extravagant “how should we open this?” sequence (Shot on iPhone, of course, as was the entire event). And there was a legitimate “One more thing…” to introduce Apple’s newest iPhone form factor, the folding iPhone Duo (with a truly magical transition). Everything that was announced was expected (and many things that were expected were not announced). The entire event was decidedly low-key. To me, the overall vibe was “we know you know we have new stuff—let’s get this over with so you can buy them.” I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been steadily improving and releasing products like clockwork for almost two decades.
You can watch the event on YouTube or read the press releases and product pages:
- iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max (product page): Preorders open September 12 (at the unholy-for-this-West-Coaster hour of 5am Pacific Time), with general availability starting September 18. Starting price for iPhone 18 Pro is $1,200 for 256GB storage, topping out at $2,400 for 2TB. iPhone 18 Pro Max is $100 more.
- iPhone Duo (product page): Preorders open October 16 (also at 5am PT), with general availability October 23. $2,000 for 256GB storage up to $3,200 for 2TB.
- AirPods 5 (product page): Preorder now, available September 18. $129 for the regular charging case or $149 with the wireless charging case (which includes swipe to change volume and “longer battery life”).
- Apple Watch Series 12 (product page): Preorder now, available September 18. Starting prices are $400 (Aluminum), $700 (Titanium), and $900 (Ceramic) for 42mm. 46mm is $50 more. (You can spend as much as $1,250 for the Ceramic 46mm with the Link Bracelet.)
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 (product page): Preorder now, available September 18. Pricing is $800 (most watch bands) or $900 (Titanium Milanese Loop).
- New health and fitness capabilities.
Immediate thoughts:
- There’s a greater than 90% chance I’ll buy a new iPhone 18 Pro, despite the astronomical, AI-fueled pricing that starts at $1,200 and escalates rapidly to $2,400. Camera improvements are my number one reason for upgrading each year, and this year looks especially compelling.
- I grudgingly admired the iPhone Duo. I went into it curious but confident it wasn’t for me. I came out wishing it was. The clever use of the (effectively three) screens looks great. But with a form factor that’s too wide for me to comfortably hold one-handed and a $2,000 starting price (and an eye-watering $3,200 top price), I’d put my chances of buying this phone at about 5%. Still, that’s about five times higher than I would have said yesterday.
- New health features are tempting me to buy an Apple Watch Ultra 4, but there’s nothing wrong with my one-year-old Ultra 3. Perhaps next year.
- I may give the AirPods 5 (the version with on-stem volume control) a shot now that it has active noise cancellation, as the AirPods Pro 3 I picked up a couple of months ago don’t fit my ears well. Perhaps these will be more comfortable.
- There were a lot of newly minted VPs presenting. For the first time in years I recognized almost no one.
I have a lot more thoughts to sort out; meanwhile, you can read what others have to say: