The iPhone 16 launch date is unknown right now, but generally Apple holds an event in the second full week of September. If you’re in the market for the upcoming phone, that’s largely when you can expect it to appear.
2023’s iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro were introduced on the 12th of September. Both phones went up for pre-order on Friday the 15th, then sent to customers (and available in Apple stores) on Friday the 22nd. That’s in line with the firm’s usual approach of an on-sale date a week after the reveal.
Major iPhone launch events have traditionally taken place on a Tuesday (though last year’s took place on a Wednesday and was a week earlier than usual, contradicting the guesses from some seasoned Apple watchers). That would place the iPhone 16 launch day on the 10th of September 2024 – though Apple has yet to make it official, and is unlikely to do so for many months yet.
If it follows the normal 10 days later on-sale date, you can expect to waltz into an Apple store and grab an iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro on the 20th of September 2024. There have been exceptions, though; there was later availability for some handsets during 2020 and the fresh-start iPhone X, for example, didn’t make it out the gate until November 2017.
When has the iPhone launch taken place in the past?
The original iPhone came out in January 2007 (though the UK launch was towards the end of that year) with some launches taking place in June and even October after that. But since the iPhone 5, things have settled in the September slot. The exception to this was in 2020, when the delay to the iPhone 12 lineup was caused by the global slowdown in production due to the pandemic. The iPhone 13 series returned to normal and the iPhone 14 launch was earlier than the launch 12 months before it.
- iPhone 5 – 12 September 2012
- iPhone 5S / 5C – 10 September 2013
- iPhone 6 / 6 Plus – 9 September 2014
- iPhone 6S / 6S Plus – 9 September 2015
- iPhone 7 / 7 Plus – 7 September 2016
- iPhone 8 / 8 Plus / X – 12 September 2017
- iPhone XS / XS Max / XR – 12 September 2018
- iPhone 11 – 10 September 10 2019
- iPhone 12 – 13 October 13 2020 (later due to manufacturing delays with the pandemic)
- iPhone 13 – 14 September 2021
- iPhone 14 – 7 September 2022
- iPhone 15 – 12 September 2023
What are we expecting from September 2024’s Apple launch?
As usual, we’re expecting four iPhone models in 2024. An iPhone 16 Mini is (sadly) not one of them. All signs point to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus ‘standard’ handsets, and a choice of iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max at the high end.
There will, of course, also be the announcement of the availability of the new version of the iPhone’s software – iOS 18. There should be a new Apple Watch 10 and maybe a Watch Ultra 3, too. We may also get the AirPods Max 2 and cheaper AirPods Lite. It’s possible we could get new iPads, too.