According to the latest report from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple plans to launch an upgraded iPhone Air and a lower-end iPhone 18e early next year. Gurman said in a report this week that these two models will be unveiled in the spring of 2027 along with the standard iPhone 18. Apple is likely to officially announce these three new models in March or April next year. It is unclear whether an online launch will be arranged by then.
Considering that the iPhone 16e and iPhone 17e will be released in the first quarter of 2025 and 2026 respectively, it is not surprising that the iPhone 18e will also debut around the first quarter of next year. However, it is worth noting that Apple seems to be planning to launch the new generation iPhone Air and the standard iPhone 18 at the same time window. The current iPhone Air and iPhone 17 standard versions were both released in September last year, but multiple reports show that Apple is promoting a new "segmented release" strategy and will launch multiple iPhone models in batches in the spring and autumn.
According to the current news, the release time of the next few new iPhones is roughly as follows:
September 2026: iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and a foldable iPhone dubbed "iPhone Ultra."
March 2027: iPhone 18e, iPhone 18, and iPhone Air 2.
Regarding Apple’s plan to implement segmented releases, relevant reports have been going on for many months, and the news itself is not new. However, there have been different opinions surrounding the specific release time of iPhone Air 2. The spring 2027 time point given by Gurman provides a clearer reference for the rhythm of this model to a certain extent.
In terms of configuration, it is reported that iPhone 18e and iPhone 18 will most likely be equipped with the A20 chip, and other upgrades will be relatively limited. In contrast, the new generation iPhone Air is expected to also use the A20 chip, and is expected to add a second rear camera, a larger capacity battery, and a vapor chamber cooling system inherited from the iPhone 17 Pro.
In addition, a whistleblower on the Chinese social platform Weibo claimed that Apple has even planned to launch iPhone Air 3 in the future, although sales of the current iPhone Air are reportedly lower than those of the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. This shows that Apple will continue to bet on this product line, at least until the third generation model.