Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg in his Power On newsletter:

The good news is, an Apple product renaissance is on the way — it just won’t happen until around 2027. If all goes well, Apple’s product road map should deliver a number of promising new devices in that period, in time for the iPhone’s 20-year anniversary.

Here’s what’s coming by then:

  • Apple’s first foldable iPhone, which some at the company consider one of two major two-decade anniversary initiatives, should be on the market by 2027. This device will be unique in that the typical foldable display crease is expected to be nearly invisible.
  • Later in the year, a mostly glass, curved iPhone — without any cutouts in the display — is due to hit. That will mark the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone X, which kicked off the transition to all-screen, glass-focused iPhone designs.
  • We should also have the first smart glasses from Apple. As I reported this past week, the company is planning to manufacture a dedicated chip for such a device by 2027. The product will operate similarly to the popular Meta Ray-Bans, letting Apple leverage its expertise in audio, miniaturization, and design. Given the company’s strengths, it’s surprising that Meta Platforms Inc. got the jump on Apple in this area.

2027 is shaping up to be a major year for Apple products. I’m excited about the foldable iPhone, though I’m also intrigued to hear more about the full-screen iPhone — Gurman reported on it last week as only including a single hole-punch camera with the Face ID components hidden under the screen. Astute Apple observers will remember this as being one of the original (leaked) plans for iPhone 14 Pro before it was eventually (leaked as being) modified to include the modern sensor array now part of the Dynamic Island. I personally have no animosity toward the current Dynamic Island and don’t think it’s too obtrusive, especially since that area would still presumably be used for Live Activity and other information when the all-screen design comes to market in a few years.

Rumors about the folding iPhone concept have been all over the place. Some reporters have asserted it’ll run an iPadOS clone, while others have said it’ll be more Mac-like, perhaps running a more desktop-like operating system. I’m not sure which rumors to believe — or even if the device Gurman is describing is the foldable iPad device that has been leaked ad nauseam — but I’m eager to at least try out this device, whatever it may be called. I don’t have a need for a foldable iPhone currently, but if it runs iPadOS when folded out, I might just ditch my iPad Pro for it, especially since it’s rumored to cost much more than the iPhone or iPad Pro.

Gurman also writes how he’s surprised Meta got ahead of Apple in the smart glasses space. I’m not at all: Meta has been working on this for years now as part of its “metaverse” Reality Labs project, while Apple has spent the same time getting Apple Vision Pro on the market. Both are abject failures — it’s just that Apple was able to eloquently pivot away from the metaverse while Apple was preparing the Apple Vision Pro hardware in 2023, as the artificial intelligence craze came around. Frankly, 2027 is too far away for an Apple version of the Meta Ray-Ban glasses. In an ideal world, such a product should come by spring 2026 at the latest, while a truly augmented-reality, visionOS-powered one should arrive in 2027. I’m willing to cut Apple at least a bit of slack for taking a while to pivot away from virtual reality to AR since that’s a tough transition to nail, especially since I don’t think Meta will do it particularly gracefully this fall. But voice assistant-powered smart glasses are table stakes — and this is coming from an undeniable Meta hater.

Now for some more immediate matters. Rolfe Winkler and Yang Jie, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (Apple News+):

Apple is weighing price increases for its fall iPhone lineup, a step it is seeking to couple with new features and design changes, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is determined to avoid any scenario in which it appears to attribute price increases to U.S. tariffs on goods from China, where most Apple devices are assembled, the people said.

The U.S. and China agreed Monday to suspend most of the tariffs they had imposed on each other in a tit-for-tat trade war. But a 20% tariff that President Trump imposed early in his second term on Chinese goods, citing what he said was Beijing’s role in the fentanyl trade, remains in place and covers smartphones.

Trump had exempted smartphones and some other electronics products from a separate “reciprocal” tariff on Chinese goods, which will temporarily fall to 10% from 125% under Monday’s trade deal. 

Someone should tell Qatar that bribery doesn’t do much good even in the Trump administration. This detail is my favorite in the whole article:

At the same time, company executives are wary of blaming increases on tariffs. When a news report in April said Amazon might show the impact of tariffs to its shoppers, the White House called it a hostile act, and Amazon quickly said the idea “was never approved and is not going to happen.”

Cowards and jokers — all of them. The Journal reports Apple executives plan to blame the price increase on new shiny features coming to the iPhone supposedly this year, but they’re struggling: “It couldn’t be determined what new features Apple may offer to help justify price increases.” I can’t recount a single feature I’ve read about that would warrant any price increase on any iPhone model, and I’m positive the American people can see through Cook and his billionaire buddies’ cover for the Trump regime. The only reason for an iPhone price increase would be Trump’s tariffs, and if Apple is too cowardly to tell its customers that, it deserves a tariff-induced drop in sales.

If Apple really wants to cover for the Gestapo, it should shut up and keep the prices the same. Apple’s executives have taken the bottom-of-the-barrel approach to every single social, political, and business issue over the last five years, and they’re doing it again. Steve Jobs, despite his greed and indignation, always believed Apple’s ultimate goal should be to make the best products. Apple’s image was his top priority. Apple under Tim Cook, its current chief executive, has the exact opposite goal: to make the most money. Whether it’s screwing developers over or covering for the literal president of the United States, who should be able to play politics by himself, Cook’s Apple has taken every shortcut possible to undercut Apple’s goal of making the best technology in the world. How does increasing prices help Apple make better products? How does it increase Apple’s profit? How does disguising the reason for those price increases restore users’ faith in Apple as a brand?

It doesn’t seem like Cook cares. In hindsight, it makes sense coming from a guy who cozies up to communist psychopaths in China who openly use back doors Apple constructs for Chinese customers to spy on ordinary citizens. Spineless coward.

2027, check. 2025, check. Let’s talk 2026. Juli Clover, reporting for MacRumors (because I’m too cheap to pay for The Information):

Starting in 2026, Apple plans to change the release cycle for its flagship iPhone lineup, according to The Information. Apple will release the more expensive iPhone 18 Pro models in the fall, delaying the release of the standard iPhone 18 until the spring.

The shift may be because Apple plans to debut a foldable iPhone in 2026, which will join the existing iPhone lineup. The fall release will include the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, an iPhone 18 Air, and the new foldable iPhone.

I think this makes sense. No other product line (aside from the Apple Watch, an accessory) in Apple’s lineup has all of its devices released during the same event. Apple usually releases consumer-level Mac laptops and desktops in the spring and pro-level ones in the summer and fall. The same goes for the iPads, which usually alternate between the iPad Pro and iPad Air due to the iPad’s irregular release schedule. The September iPhone event is Apple’s most-watched event by a mile and replicating that demand in the spring could do wonders for Apple’s other springtime releases, like iPads and Macs. Apple’s iPhone line is about to become much more complicated, too, with a thin version and a folding one coming in the next few years, so bifurcating the line into two distinct seasons would clean things up for analysts and reporters, too.

I also think the budget-friendly iPhone, formerly known as the SE, should move to an 18-month cycle. I dislike it when the low-end iPhone stands out as the old, left-behind model, especially when the latest budget iPhone isn’t a very good deal (it almost never is), but I also think it’s too low-end to be updated every spring. An alternating spring-fall release cycle would be perfect for one of Apple’s least-best-selling iPhone models.