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iPhone Fold Likely to Ship Later Than iPhone 18 Pro

The new foldable iPhone won't ship to customers in the same September timeframe as the iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said today in a Q&A session.


Apple will likely ship the iPhone Fold to customers after the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and Pro Max come out in September, but Gurman did not provide a specific availability timeline.

Earlier this month, Barclays analyst Tim Long suggested that the foldable iPhone won't ship until December, suggesting a roughly three-month delay between the ‌iPhone Fold‌ and the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models. Apple has done a split launch before, shipping one model later than another. When the iPhone X launched in 2017, it shipped out in November, while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus introduced alongside it came out in September as usual.

It is entirely possible Apple will ship the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max in September and then follow it with the ‌iPhone Fold‌ sometime between September and the end of the year. Back in December, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the ‌iPhone Fold‌ would be in short supply, suggesting manufacturing difficulties. Kuo expects supply constraints into 2027, and supply problems or manufacturing issues could explain why Apple would delay the ‌iPhone Fold‌'s shipment date.

Even if Apple does plan to ship the ‌iPhone Fold‌ after September, we can still expect to see it introduced during the annual iPhone event that will feature the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models. Apple will likely announce all three phones at once, and then bring them to customers when they're ready.
Related Roundups: iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Fold

This article, "iPhone Fold Likely to Ship Later Than iPhone 18 Pro" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple Testing 200MP Telephoto iPhone Lens That Could Ship Next Year

Apple is evaluating a 200-megapixel telephoto camera sensor that could potentially ship in an iPhone as soon as next year, according to Digital Chat Station, a leaker on Chinese social media platform Weibo with a decent track record.


In a post shared today, the leaker said Apple is actively testing a 200-megapixel 1/1.2" sensor similar to the one rumored for Oppo's upcoming Find X9 Ultra.

On the already-released Find X9 Pro, Oppo debuted a 200-megapixel periscopic telephoto lens with a large 1/1.56" sensor that's far bigger than typical zoom cameras. An earlier leak by Digital Chat Station suggests Oppo's upcoming Ultra model will push this further by introducing a 1/1.28" sensor.

The leaker's latest claim is a notable development. In January, they said 200-megapixel camera sensors were being discussed in Apple's supply chain, but that they had not appeared in engineering prototypes. At the time, Apple's development work was said to remain focused on refining its existing 48-megapixel systems.

January was also the month that Morgan Stanley reported Apple is working to bring a 200-megapixel camera to the iPhone as soon as 2028.

Samsung introduced a 200-megapixel rear camera on its Galaxy S23 Ultra in 2023, and the follow-up models also have one. With a 200-megapixel camera, an iPhone would be able to shoot photos with greater detail. The increased megapixel count would also result in higher-resolution photos, which can be cropped further and printed at larger sizes without a loss of image quality.

In early 2027, Apple is expected to release the regular iPhone 18 as part of a new split-launch cycle, with next-generation Pro models following during the usual September time frame. Next year could also usher in a 20th anniversary iPhone, which could be either a Pro equivalent or perhaps a higher-tier premium model, similar to Apple's iPhone X.
Related Roundup: iPhone 18 Pro

This article, "Apple Testing 200MP Telephoto iPhone Lens That Could Ship Next Year" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple Wanted to Buy Halide to Boost iPhone 18 Pro's Camera App—Now There's a Lawsuit

Apple's plans to enhance the iPhone 18 Pro's Camera app led it to consider acquiring Halide, but the talks ultimately collapsed and were followed by a fierce legal dispute between the startup's co-founders, according to The Information reports.


In the summer of 2025, Apple reportedly held discussions to acquire Lux Optics, the developer behind the popular iPhone camera apps Halide, Kino, and Spectre. The company concluded that it could get a better offer from Apple in the future following updates to the app. Two months after the talks concluded without a deal, Apple set about recruiting Lux's co-founder and designer Sebastian de With.

Lux CEO and co-founder Ben Sandofsky is said to have fired de With in December over financial misconduct. de With announced that he had joined Apple's design team in January.

Sandofsky has now filed a lawsuit in the California Superior Court of Santa Cruz against de With, accusing him of improperly using more than $150,000 in Lux company funds to pay for personal expenses since 2022, as well as providing confidential material and source code from Lux to Apple.

During the discussions to acquire Lux, Apple employees purportedly told the startup that its intellectual property was a major consideration in evaluating the company. Apple apparently wanted to acquire Lux to bolster the built-in Camera app, which is said to be "top priority for the company right now." The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ will "match professional-grade cameras in terms of certain advanced features," necessitating an upgrade of the built-in Camera app. Apple is not named as a defendant in the case and it is not accused of any wrongdoing.

de With's legal representatives say that the lawsuit is meritless and deny that he "used, transferred, or disclosed any Lux intellectual property" as part of his new job at Apple. They added that the lawsuit was only filed after de With raised concerns with Sandofsky about financial irregularities at Lux and had requested access to its financial records and payments, suggesting that it was a "retaliatory response to those efforts and an attempt to avoid scrutiny of that conduct."
Related Roundups: iPhone 18, iPhone 18 Pro
Related Forum: iPhone

This article, "Apple Wanted to Buy Halide to Boost iPhone 18 Pro's Camera App—Now There's a Lawsuit" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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