Every year Apple announces its new iPhones and 2023 is not expected to be any different. But when exactly should new iPhone buyers expect them to be announced and then go on sale?
That's impossible to answer with 100% certainty right now, and that'll remain the case until Apple announces something itself. But that doesn't mean that we can't make some educated and informed guesses as to when the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models will arrive.
But to get a feel for when the best iPhones will be here, we need to look back. Back at what came before, because there's a pattern to be followed. And where there's a pattern, there's precedent.
The iPhones that came before
You don't get to the iPhone 15 without releasing a ton of iPhones before it, and they all have their own story to tell.
Take the iPhone 14 lineup of 2022, for example. They were all announced on September 7, but they went on sale on September 16. Or, some of them did. The iPhone 14 Plus had to wait until October 7. It was a similar story for the iPhone 12 lineup, too.
With that in mind, let's take a look at when the most recent iPhones were announced and then when they went on sale. Hopefully, we can get an idea of what to expect in 2023.
- iPhone 14 — Announced on September 7, released on September 16
- iPhone 13 — Announced on September 15, released on September 24
- iPhone 12 — Announced on October 13, released on October 23
- iPhone 11 — Announced on September 10, released on September 20
- iPhone XS — Announced on September 12, released on September 21
- iPhone X — Announced on September 12, released on November 3
The general pattern is that Apple announces its new iPhones in the second week of September and then releases them to the public nine or 10 days later. There are outliers, of course. The iPhone 14 Plus, we discussed, and the iPhone 12, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold and wrecking global supply chains. But, generally, nine or 10 days is the window Apple tends to work to. It announces new models mid-week, puts them up for preorder the following Friday, and makes them available to buy the following week
So now that we have that context, when will Apple announce the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models, and when will they go on sale?
iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Pro expected dates
Using our crystal ball we'd suggest that the iPhone 15 lineup could be announced on September 12 or September 13, although a date a week earlier isn't completely out of the question — so that's September 5 and September 6.
Whichever of those two dates is chosen, preorders are likely to start at the end of that week — September 8 or September 15, then.
As for actual sales, they should begin a week after those dates which brings us to an actual release date of September 15 or September 22. Our money would be on the latter.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max wrinkle
There's always the chance that we could see a staggered launch, of course. Rumors of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max supply constraints are already starting to appear. And if Apple is indeed struggling to get its best iPhones ready for the big day it could choose to delay their launches slightly.
That would mean that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus would go on sale before the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Such a move would give Apple time to stockpile units ready for sale in October.
Apple might simply choose to put all four models on sale at once and deal with the product shortages that follow. New iPhones behind hard-to-find would be nothing new of course, and there's a school of thinking that scarcity is no bad thing for any new product at release. For Apple's part, we'd suggest it would just rather be able to sell an iPhone to everyone who wants one at the time they want it.
The most likely scenario
Ultimately, we might have to wait for Apple to announce its iPhone unveiling event for us to get a proper feel for what's going on. We can infer the preorder and launch dates from there, although that iPhone 15 Pro wrinkle will still remain until Apple shares launch dates with us.
The launch date isn't the only thing we're questioning right now, of course. Talk of price hikes means that the iPhone 15 prices might be higher than we'd like and that might help reduce demand. But one thing's for sure, Apple never struggles to sell new iPhones on launch day no matter how much they sell them for.
As for when that launch day will be, we'll have to wait and see.
