As the first foldable, the iPhone will still have to wait quite a while, but we now have a clear idea of when it can reach the market. The latest leak points to September 2026.
The leak comes from the Korean site Alpha Economy (via Android Authority). Citing “an official familiar with Apple’s internal affairs,” some previous leaks also suggested that the foldable iPhone could land in 2026. This is the first time the release window has been compressed to a month.
A September 2026 launch likely means the foldable iPhone will hit the iPhone 18 range; as we’ve seen, Apple tends to launch its flagships mainly in September. It is expected that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will probably hit the US market sometime after. Which will launch in August 2026 based on past forms?
DSCC forecasts that 15.8 million foldable phones will be sold by mid-2023. However, the Apple brand they will create needs to be clearly stated. While that may seem very high, if any company can make foldable phones genuinely mainstream, it’s Apple.
A source told the publication that Apple is moving some employees from the Vision Pro team to the foldable project. “I understand that a significant number of key employees at Vision Pro have been transferred to the foldable phone development team to build the foldable phone,” a report said Tech Radar.
We advise you to approach this latest report with some caution. There have already been many rumours about the foldable iPhone. More recently, a Weibo leaker claimed that Apple temporarily halted development of the device due to display failure. He also claimed that Apple is developing a foldable iPad first.
However, we’ll take all this with a pinch of salt, especially for the September 2026 release date. It’s still a long way off, so even if this information is correct, something could change Apple’s plans already.
