Apple Reportedly Has a Bold New Plan For Innovation Over the Next Few Years: More iPhones

In the years leading up to, and including, 2025, Gurman observes that Apple released “four main iPhones—two Pro models and two mid-tier versions—in the fall,†plus the occasional budget release. 2026 will usher in, Gurman says, a change that will hold indefinitely: a faster and more constant pace of iPhone releases.

Fall of 2026 will see, Gurman says, three releases: the top-tier iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and the long-rumored foldable iPhone. That release, he says, will be followed in spring of 2027 by the non-Pro iPhone 18, 18e, and (maybe) a new iPhone Air.

This staggered, more diverse pattern of iPhone releases will last for “years to come,†Gurman thinks.

The foldable iPhone in 2026 (which hasn’t been formally announced) is expected to be an earthquake for Apple fans, ushering a whole new form factor, a crease-free design, renewed reliance on retro Touch ID instead of Face ID, and—thanks to that huge open screen—potentially changing consumer habits around streaming.

But another major seismic event will reportedly come the following year. Just half a year after another fresh batch of releases—barely time for them to get stale—Gurman says Apple will unleash what he has previously speculated will be called the “iPhone 20†(named for the product’s 20th birthday), an iPhone with a “curved glass†screen. That means it would be rounded at the edges and have a continuous, tapering screen image running down to the sides, and no bezel. It might help to look at some fan art to understand what Gurman is describing here.

The point is less the product rumors, which aren’t new, than the release plans. Those who demand the absolute latest (if not necessarily the greatest), will barely have time to let the novelty wear off before they have to run to the Apple Store once again. Huge, crowded releases in the fall plans meant Apple “had fewer opportunities to spread out revenue across the year,†Gurman says. The new plan may be less of a headache for Apple employees, as well as the employees of the factories it outsources to.

It could also “prevent its premium and budget models from cannibalizing each other’s marketing,†Gurman notes.