September is right around the corner, and you know what that means—the iPhone 17 launch event is almost here.
German blog iPhone-Ticker (via 9to5Mac) claims Apple will announce the iPhone 17 family—that includes the regular iPhone 17, super-thin iPhone 17 Air, and camera-focused iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max—on Tuesday, Sept. 9. That’s according to documents from a local wireless carrier that the blog has reportedly seen.
Apple tea readers—including yours truly, who needs to plan his life around such major product announcements—have been speculating that Apple would announce the iPhone 17 family during the second week of September, a week after Labor Day and before 9/11, for obvious reasons.
A leak is still a leak, and until Apple makes it official, it’s not 100% confirmation. That being said, we’ve looked back at past years, and Apple does tend to announce new iPhones on Tuesdays in September for the most part. Here’s a quick stat analysis, showing five Tuesday announcements in the past eight years:
- 2024: Monday, Sept. 9
- 2023: Tuesday, Sept. 12.
- 2022: Wednesday, Sept. 7
- 2021: Tuesday, Sept. 14
- 2020: Tuesday, Oct. 13
- 2019: Tuesday, Sept. 10
- 2018: Wednesday, Sept. 12
- 2017: Tuesday, Sept. 12.
The only real outlier date was 2020, when the iPhone 12 was announced in October instead of September due to covid-19.
As noted by 9to5Mac, if the Sept. 9 date announcement holds, the likely pre-order and street dates for the iPhone 17 family would be Friday, Sept. 12 and Friday, Sept. 19, respectively, if Apple sticks to past logistic strategies.
Much about the iPhone 17 family has already leaked, including the purported colors (there’s supposed to be a new orange for the iPhone 17 Pro/17 Pro Max) and the smaller battery for the skinny iPhone 17 Air.
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) July 30, 2025
We also know that the iPhone 17 family will run iOS 26 with Liquid Glass out of the box. The developer betas have been rolling out consistently since WWDC in June, and the first public beta has been out for almost two weeks now. All that’s really left is to see how iOS 26 runs on the new iPhones, whether there are any hardware and software-specific features that haven’t been leaked, and if Apple will announce anything new for Apple Intelligence. The AI-powered Siri snafu may have created the narrative that Apple is far behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Google’s Gemini, but CEO Tim Cook is adamant that AI is “as big or bigger” than the internet. In an all-hands with employees, Cook said, “Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,” referring to the urgency and necessity of not missing out on the AI revolution.
Apple Watch Series 11 and AirPods Pro 3?
Apple also uses its fall iPhone event to announce new Apple Watches and sometimes new AirPods Pro. Last year, we got the Apple Watch Series 10 with larger displays and slimmer bodies. In AirPods land, Apple refreshed the AirPods Max with USB-C. and all-new colors and announced two versions of the AirPods 4 (one pair with and one without active noise cancellation). Before that, in 2023, Apple introduced AirPods Pro 2 with (USB-C).
Weirdly, very little has leaked out on the Apple Watch Series 11, so either it’s going to be a very mild update with any selling points focused on AI-powered health and/or fitness coaching, or Apple has some major redesign that it’s doing an incredible job of keeping from slipping out early. If Apple doesn’t delay AirPods Pro 3 to next year, we could see them in September.
We’ll know everything there is to know about the iPhone 17 and any Apple ecosystem accessories in just over a month’s time. And as always, if anything substantial leaks out early, you know we’ll have thoughts.
