After an overnight report guessing otherwise, another leaker claims that the iPhone Fold will be launched in September. Time will tell who's right.

As with any new piece of technology in development, the iPhone Fold will have had a lot of teething troubles in its development. That has led to a spate of claims that various issues have led to delays for the model.

In a Tuesday post, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg insists that the iPhone Fold isn't delayed. In fact, it will be arriving alongside the rest of the iPhone roster as usual, in September.

Refuting the claims, Gurman says that people with knowledge of the iPhone Fold told him that the iPhone Fold will appear with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. This launch will be in September, and the release should happen the week after it is unveiled.

While the reports are denied by his sources, Gurman does admit that there is still a bit of production concern for the launch. Six months away from the September iPhone event, mass production for the iPhone Fold has yet to ramp up yet.

This brings some uncertainty. The insisted September launch isn't guaranteed, but it is still favored.

Gurman is generally favored when it comes to rumors for Apple products, including both supply chain and product feature claims.

Delay claims

Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of reports about the overall timing of the iPhone Fold, and how it can be later than planned.

On March 19, a Barclays analyst put forward the questionable notion that the iPhone Fold would launch in December, not September. By March 24, Bank of America joined in, saying its supply chain checks made a 2026 launch "likely."

A March 26 report from Gurman himself also questioned the release schedule, saying a launch could happen as usual in September, but shipments would happen at a later time.

The April 7 report insisted that there warnings from the supply chain of potential mass production and shipment delays.

While Apple's supply chain is vast and requires a lot of planning on the company's side, it's entirely possible for Apple to still bring the iPhone Fold out in September. Whether it choose to do so is another matter entirely.

A need for display flexibility

To be fair to the leakers and rumor mongers, the iPhone Fold is the kind of hardware that can be challenging to produce. Especially because this would be Apple's first product with a folding display, and it has to get things right from the start.

The display is an extremely important element, and the world probably saw it during CES. A Samsung Display booth briefly displayed a crease-less display, before pulling it from the stand.

While the display seemed settled on, that didn't stop Apple from making a late change, one February report claimed. Apple switched out PET film for a transparent polymide (PI) film instead, to try and reduce the presence of scratches.

Even so, it seems that some parts of production are coming online. One March 13 report claimed that display production for the iPhone Fold will start during the summer, as per usual for the September iPhone launch window.

Apple's industrious supply chain and massive time schedules also means that it has had a lot of time to prepare the model for launch. Back in October 2025, it was claimed that Apple was stockpiling parts for the iPhone Fold, in preparation for its inevitable mass production.