Apple plans to start building the standard iPhone 18 in late November, according to Fixed Focus Digital, a leaker who posts on Weibo, the Chinese social network. The leaker called the amount of stock being prepared "quite large." That would put the first units on the line about six weeks from now.
The phone itself isn't due until spring 2027. Apple split its iPhone launches this year. The iPhone 18 Pro models came out in September, and the regular iPhone 18 was held back for its own release next spring, expected alongside the cheaper iPhone 18e. The iPhone Air 2 has no production date in this report, and its timing is still open. Starting the lines in late November gives Apple several months to build up stock before anyone can buy one.
Counterpoint Research found that the standard iPhone 17 was the best-selling smartphone in the world in both the first and second quarters of 2026, at 6% of all phones sold in each. It outsold the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Demand showed up early, too: after the iPhone 17's first pre-order weekend, Apple told two suppliers to raise daily output by at least 30%, The Information reported. Plenty of people looked at the Pro and bought the cheaper one.
Reuters reported that Apple cut component orders for the iPhone 18 Pro series by at least 15% as prices rose, memory in particular. So the bigger order is going to the cheaper phone, and the smaller one to the expensive phones that are already on sale.
The iPhone 18 is expected to keep a design close to the iPhone 17's. The changes reported so far are a smaller Dynamic Island, the pill-shaped cutout at the top of the screen, plus Apple's A20 chip and its own C2 modem, the part that connects the phone to cellular networks. Both the iPhone 18 and the iPhone 18e could use the A20, possibly made on TSMC's 2nm process, the newest and smallest chipmaking process from the company that builds Apple's chips. Same shape, new insides.
Apple hasn't announced a date or a price for the regular iPhone 18. If the lines start in late November at the size described, the regular model should be easy to find when it goes on sale in the spring. If you're choosing between an iPhone 18 Pro now and the regular model later, a launch-day shortage of the regular one isn't the thing to worry about.