Apple Hopes a Surge of New Products Will Fix Core Problems

The iPhone, inarguably the most important product of the 21st century, turns 20 in 2027. If leaks and rumors are anything to go by, the years leading up to that birthday promise to mark the most important releases for Apple hardware since the original phone. Following a decline in market value, faltering iPhone sales, and rising hardware prices, Apple will be hoping for a turnaround in its performance. Here’s what they might be rolling out to reverse their fortunes:The Next iPhones: The 18, 18 Pro, and 18 Pro MaxiPhone 18 Pro. Courtesy of AppleThe next iPhone event, expected to be held in September, will be pretty boring for the Pro phones — both because more exciting releases are coming, and because we know exactly what the Pro phones will look like, thanks to media leaks, particularly those from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In June, footage leaked of a drop test of the iPhone 18 Pro, and it looks almost exactly the same as the current iPhone 17 Pro. The focus of this release will be the new software — most importantly, the improved Siri AI — while the hardware will see only iterative camera, battery, and chip improvements, along with a new year-specific color. The iPhone 17 Pro’s highly identifiable orange hue has been the bestseller, so expect Apple to repeat the formula.The standard 18 is apparently going to be delayed until spring 2027. That makes sense, both because it would have trouble standing out in a release filled with the Pro models and the first foldable, but also because the current 17 is such a good phone.What’s interesting is that the standard iPhone is now going to be seen as the “budget” entry in the iPhone line, with the “Pro” as the “normal” iPhone, and the folding version as the premium one. All of these models will increase in price — AI data center demand has dramatically driven up the price of virtually all computer components — and it coincides with Apple’s move to reassert iPhone as the premium phone brand. No word on whether they will kill their actual budget phone, the 17e — but they should, as it loses any comparison test with a refurbished last-gen iPhone.The folding iPhone: the iPhone UltraSpeaking of Apple moving the iPhone upmarket: While the iPhone X made news as the first phone to start at $1,000, the upcoming folding iPhone will likely start at twice that price. Even so, it will probably cannibalize a lot of sales from the Pro Max. Large folding phones — which, folded, are roughly the size of a normal phone, but unfold to reveal an inner screen the size of a small table — have been on the market for years, with Samsung selling the Z Fold series since 2019. That range has sold OK, but it mainly serves as a flagship to get customers thinking about Samsung. Apple has waited until now to enter this field so that customers would be familiar with the style and could sort out the quirks of the form factor.Namely they wanted to get rid of the crease in the center of the folding screen, make sure it was durable, and make sure it was pretty light.Apple’s phone — probably called the iPhone Ultra — won’t be the only folding phone to solve these issues, but it’s not far behind in this tech either. It also will be distinct, with a far shorter screen than most folding phones, unfolding to something closer to an iPad Mini in silhouette. I didn’t like this in the original Pixel Fold, but that wasn’t the only issue with that phone, and the OnePlus Open — probably the best folding phone ever made — was also shorter than the tall, skinny look of Samsung, or the tall, thick look of the Pixel Fold series after that. The iPhone will reportedly be even shorter than those, which is a risky move, but an interesting one.We know this from an infinite number of leaks and rumors, but also from metal dummy phones that phone case manufacturers get access to early to make covers. Those models also show that the phone will have two rear-mounted cameras, a thin silhouette, and Touch ID in the side button. Expect it to be unveiled at the September event.The Next iPhone AirThe iPhone Air is my favorite modern phone, and until it was stolen from me in London — an unfortunate epidemic in the capital — I used it every single day. It’s a compromised phone, with a single rear camera and a small battery, but once you get used to having such a thin, light phone, it’s hard to go back to something chunkier.It has been a poor seller, though, and, as such, the next generation — releasing in spring 2027 — will partially address both compromises, while keeping the core experience in place. The rear will have an ultrawide camera, as well as the base one — which will make it look worse, but oh well — and the battery will be slightly larger. Rumors suggest Apple won’t use power-dense silicon-carbon batteries, which is a shame, but it should be an even greater version of an amazing.It will also have a more appealing position in the lineup, at $999, compared to even more expensive Pro and Ultra iPhones.The Anniversary iPhoneA curved glass iPhone 20. Courtesy of AppleThough the next Pro iPhone is but an iterative upgrade, that won’t be true of the iPhone XX or 20, coming in 2027, to mark the 20th anniversary of the iPhone. Yes, the iPhone released after the 18 will be the 20, but they may also release a standard iPhone 19 lineup with it, as they did in 2017 with the launch of the iPhone X. For this next anniversary phone, expect to see the biggest change in iPhone design since they introduced the slab-sided design language with the iPhone 12, with a more curved body, and glass wrapping around all four edges. You can also expect a considerably smaller camera notch or perhaps even an under-display Face ID, along with haptic buttons. At the moment, there are too few confirmed details about this phone to say anything with confidence, but it promises to be extremely impressive. If they make this a tier above the standard 19 range, expect it to start at $1,500.The Other DevicesBefore we mention those that are coming: the one they aren’t making but ought to: an iPod. Distraction-free, single-purpose devices are having a comeback, and a stand-alone iPod — basically just an Apple Music player with Bluetooth and a headphone jack — released this November for the 25th anniversary of the iPod, would sell so well.But, other exciting products include:A touchscreen Mac: Predicted for years and never delivered, a touchscreen version of the MacBook Pro is finally close, as a top-of-the-range MacBook Pro, with an improved OLED display, Apple’s most powerful chipset, and — probably — a MacBook Ultra name. It will be seriously cool and outrageously expensive.Apple Smart Glasses: Meta tried making VR the next big computing format. When that didn’t happen, they turned to making the smallest face-computer format possible: sunglasses with cameras and speakers in the arms. With time, they’ve added small displays to the premium versions, but glasses with onboard cameras, speakers, and AI are pretty appealing, and Meta sold more than 7 million pairs in 2025 alone. Apple is following this path, basically abandoning the Vision Pro and introducing new smart glasses in 2027 — which, like the Meta Ray-Bans, will have no screen, just glasses and cameras. Apple seems to be making its fashion item all on its own, without a partner like RayBan, and expect them to look stylish if slightly controversial, to be highly recognizable and much more expensive than the Meta glasses. They will be heavily marketed around using Siri AI hands-free, but the actual selling point is being able to take POV iPhone videos and photos with your glasses and have them immediately sync to all your Apple devices. Years of ecosystem refinement and photo software expertise should make these superb and worth the premium they will command over the Meta glasses.AirPods with cameras: For some reason, Apple is making these? There are so many products they could and should add to the AirPods line — a chunkier pair with Bose-level noise-canceling to start — but Apple is pursuing this. The pitch is that, when wearing these earbuds, you can use Siri to answer questions about the world around you. But you can do the same on your phone, which has a bigger battery? Or on the new, better smart glasses? These may be shockingly great, with some fantastic features, but I’m not convinced.HomePad, but probably with a different name: Basically, this will be a HomePod with an iPad attached to the top, and it will be great for the right household. Apple has woefully underinvested in its smart-speaker ecosystem — HomePod should compete with Sonos, but it just doesn’t — but this is a cool idea for a central hub for your smart home. The idea is that you can just approach it, the tablet will recognize your face, and then give you a Siri AI summary of all the info you need to know, all the settings you might want to control, and so forth, and then log out of your details as soon as you turn away.A tablet attached to a robot arm? This is apparently a real thing, and basically will be a version of the previous product but with a self-moving arm. I’m not going to believe it until I see it.A new iPad Pro and redesigned MacBook Pro: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also reports a refreshed iPad Pro line and a redesigned entry-level MacBook Pro, both lined up for the first half of 2027, part of Apple’s push to spread launches across the calendar rather than cram them into September. Neither is a reinvention, but the MacBook Pro will get the new design language coming to the pricier touchscreen models.

Apple Hopes a Surge of New Products Will Fix Core Problems

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