Apple announces new iPhones in first event under CEO John Ternus

Apple opened its annual fall product event on Wednesday with a series of iPhone updates, the first launch presentation led by John Ternus since he took over as CEO from Tim Cook on Sept. 1 — and the company is expected to use the event to unveil its first foldable iPhone, its biggest change to the device since it was introduced in 2007. Apple has not confirmed the foldable device, and details including its name, price and release date were not known as of publication. Beginning the livestreamed event at the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters, Ternus and other employees announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, which includes incremental changes to the product lines like new colors and a new ability to customize the voice of its Siri artificial intelligence assistant. The company highlighted increased battery capabilities in the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, which it says charges faster than previous generations and has over 24 hours of battery life. Other changes include a feature called “Apple Reference Image,” which the company said could be used to prove the authenticity of an image in an era when AI-generated content is becoming ubiquitous. The company also said it was improving the aperture control on the iPhone camera and the device’s thermal management, which is designed to prevent overheating. Ternus inherits a company facing increasingly serious competition in phones and pressure to show that it can still drive the upgrade cycles that made the iPhone the most profitable product in consumer electronics. A foldable iPhone would be Apple’s first genuinely new iPhone form factor in nearly two decades. The appeal of the devices is often about their size — some foldable phones expand to be as large as a tablet, while others are marketed for how compact they are when they fold up. Apple is known for launching products into existing markets and quickly taking over market share, as it did with wireless headphones and smartwatches. Samsung has cornered the foldable phone market since 2019, building niche demand for the product that shipped 19.6 million units in 2025, just a fraction of overall smartphone sales. On Monday, Chinese tech companies Huawei and Xiaomi launched their own foldable phones, priced at $2,980 and $3,725, respectively. Fans of foldable devices have worked to attract converts and dispel consumers’ potential concerns, including about durability: If it can fold, does that mean it can break more easily? Livestream videos posted online claim to show users folding some devices 200,000 times. So far, though, foldable phones have struggled to break through to a major success in the mobile market. The idea of a flexible display has been around for decades. In 2007, the same year Apple introduced the iPhone, a company called Polymer Vision released a prototype of a foldable e-reader called Readius with a grayscale display. The company shuttered in 2009. This article will be updated.