Apple Confirms September 9 iPhone Launch Event, Teasing First Foldable Model and New CEO Ternus’s Debut

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple has set Sept. 9 as the date for its biggest product event of the year, an announcement that carries extra weight this time around: it will mark the first major keynote led by incoming Chief Executive John Ternus and is expected to introduce the company’s long-awaited first foldable iPhone.

Apple confirmed the date Wednesday, sending media invitations carrying the tagline “Surprise and shine” alongside an image of a glowing Apple logo. The event will take place at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, at 10 a.m. Pacific time, and will be livestreamed on the company’s website, according to the invitation.

A new era begins

The timing of the event is no coincidence. Ternus, Apple’s longtime senior vice president of hardware engineering, is scheduled to officially become chief executive on Sept. 1, just over a week before he takes the stage for his first major product launch in the role. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook, who has led Apple for 15 years, will transition to the role of executive chairman.

Ternus’s promotion was announced in April and has been widely viewed as a signal of Apple’s renewed focus on its core device business. Unlike Cook, who built his reputation as a supply chain, sales and finance expert, Ternus is a hardware engineer by trade, and Bloomberg News has reported that the timing of his transition to CEO was deliberately designed to coincide with the debut of Apple’s first foldable device.

Bank of America analysts framed the moment in stark terms in an August research note, writing that “Ternus could cement Apple’s device dominance in an AI enabled era,” according to CNN.

The foldable iPhone takes center stage

The centerpiece of the September event is expected to be Apple’s first foldable iPhone, a device the company has been rumored to be developing for years. As the iPhone approaches the 20th anniversary of its original introduction, the foldable design would represent the most significant change to the product’s physical form since it launched.

Apple enters a foldable smartphone market currently dominated by Samsung Electronics, which has spent years refining its Galaxy Z Fold line and, earlier this year, unveiled a new passport-sized foldable device as it works to defend its position ahead of Apple’s entry. Samsung’s senior vice president of mobile product management, Drew Blackard, told CNN in July that broader visibility for the foldable category, driven in part by new entrants, would likely benefit the segment overall.

Analysts expect Apple’s foldable iPhone to feature a display roughly comparable in size to an iPad mini when unfolded. Research firm IDC projects Apple will ship more than 17 million foldable iPhones by 2027, and forecasts foldable phone shipments industrywide will rise 12.6% this year even as overall global smartphone shipments are expected to fall by a record 16.7%.

What else Apple is expected to announce

Beyond the foldable device, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at the September event. Reports have indicated the two models will represent relatively iterative upgrades rather than a dramatic redesign, and that Apple will hold off on announcing a standard iPhone 18 model until next year, according to MacRumors.

The company is also expected to introduce the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra, along with new smart home devices. Additional reporting has pointed to further hardware refreshes across Apple’s ecosystem, potentially including updated AirPods, as the company works to round out its fall product lineup.

On the software side, Apple may use the event to announce release dates for iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate, giving developers and consumers a clearer timeline for its next generation of operating systems. Some reporting has also pointed to the possibility that Apple could introduce an upgraded, AI-powered version of Siri at the event, built using modern large language model technology to let the assistant interact more directly with apps such as messaging and calendars, according to CNBC.

Why this event matters more than usual

Apple typically holds a major hardware event every September to launch its newest iPhones, and this year’s gathering was expected regardless of any leadership changes. But the confluence of Ternus’s ascension to CEO and the debut of the company’s most significant hardware redesign in years has raised the stakes considerably for what is usually a predictable annual tradition.

CNN described Apple’s September event as widely considered the company’s most important moment of the year, a characterization that carries additional significance given that it will double as Ternus’s public introduction as chief executive to investors, customers and the broader tech industry.

The foldable iPhone in particular is seen by analysts as a critical driver for Apple’s business going forward. Premium, higher-priced devices like a foldable model are widely expected to support higher average selling prices and improved profit margins for the company, at a time when the broader smartphone industry is grappling with supply constraints tied to a shortage of memory and storage chips that has pushed up costs and dampened consumer demand.

Apple’s announcement ends months of speculation about the timing of its fall hardware event, though the company’s invitation, as is typical, offered no explicit confirmation of what will be unveiled on stage. The event will be streamed on YouTube, Apple’s own events page, and the Apple TV app, among other platforms, giving global audiences the chance to watch as Ternus steps into the spotlight for the first time as Apple’s chief executive.

With the foldable iPhone, a new CEO and a wave of other hardware and software announcements all converging on a single September morning in Cupertino, Apple watchers say the Sept. 9 event could prove to be one of the most consequential product launches in the company’s recent history — a test of whether its next era of leadership can deliver the kind of surprise its own invitation promises.