Barely a week after the introduction of the iPhone 17e, rumors are already spreading about the iPhone 18e. The cycle begins again.

The Apple rumor mill is always looking toward the future, and often speculates on the next update just as everyone recovers from Apple's latest launches. As expected, this has already happened for the iPhone 18e.

In a post to Weibo on Saturday by leaker Fixed Focus Digital, Apple is already working on the iPhone 18e. This is apparently "confirmed" by the leaker, and according to an automated translation of the post, the iPhone 18e is "finalized," whatever that means.

However, aside from the model number, the leaker doesn't offer any other real details about the new model. No specifications, no launch timeframe, nothing but a name.

Fixed Focus Digital has a mixed track record when it comes to leaks, having previously gotten the iPhone 16e name right as well as the iPhone 17 gaining a 120Hz display. However, they have been wrong just as often as they've been right.

Weibo-based leakers also tend to have a bad reputation for inaccuracy in general. In a bid to maintain their status, such leakers tend to regurgitate claims from elsewhere, make wild claims that sound sensational, or make educated guesses on very probable factors.

Thin and predictable rumor

Though it is entirely plausible for the leaker to have gathered some information about the iPhone 18e, the rumor does fall squarely in the realm of guesswork.

Given Apple has brought out the iPhone 16e and now the iPhone 17e, it's not a stretch of the imagination to believe there will be an 18e to continue the sequence.

There's also Apple's lengthy schedule between the start of development and mass production to consider. Considering the company's size and its massive supply chain, it will almost certainly have entertained the idea of the iPhone 18e long before shipping the iPhone 17e.

We believe the leaker's schedule is predictable here, too.

In February 2025, less than a week after Apple introduced the iPhone 16e, Fixed Focus Digital claimed on Weibo that there was a "new project code" for the iPhone 17e. There was no indication of where this project code was sourced from, bringing the rumor into question.

Two months later, in April 2025, the leaker posted that the model had almost reached the trial production stage, and with a subsequent update that it was "tentatively scheduled" for May 2026.

By December, they claimed that the iPhone 17e was in mass production. But once again, that claim was made with no real specifications for the model itself, and was obvious given historical timetables of production for entry-level iPhones.

While Fixed Focus Digital certainly earned some reputation points for being an early adopter of the iPhone 16e name in January 2025, that can only really last for so long. Saying there will be an incremental model name for a product that's a year away from a company that loves annual update cycles isn't big news anymore.

File this one under the obvious "water is wet" column.