Apple has published four launch dates for its two new iPhones and a complete country list for none of them. Its iPhone 18 Pro release names 18 markets as examples of “more than 65 countries and regions” for September 18, and it names nothing at all for the 20 markets dated September 25, the 70-plus dated October 23 or the 28 dated October 30.
Add those up and roughly 48 markets have been given a launch date with no confirmation that they are the market in question. If you are buying outside the US, the practical consequence is that your own Apple storefront, not the press release, is the only place your date appears.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Launch dates published | Four: September 18, September 25, October 23, October 30 |
| Countries Apple names | 18, all in the first iPhone 18 Pro wave |
| Waves with no named country | Three |
| Markets dated but not named | Around 48 |
| Pre-orders | 12:00 UTC on September 12 for iPhone 18 Pro, October 16 for iPhone Duo |
| eSIM-only markets Apple lists | 12, of which seven appear on no launch list |
The four dates Apple published
| Wave | Date | Apple’s count | Countries named |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro, first | Friday, September 18 | More than 65 | 18 |
| iPhone 18 Pro, second | Friday, September 25 | 20 | None |
| iPhone Duo, first | Friday, October 23 | More than 70 | None |
| iPhone Duo, second | Friday, October 30 | 28 | None |
One thing falls out of that table that Apple never states. On its own counts the iPhone Duo launches into a wider first wave than the iPhone 18 Pro, more than 70 countries against more than 65, and reaches a larger total once the second waves land. A first-generation foldable is being distributed more broadly than the mainstream Pro, which is the opposite of how a cautious launch usually looks.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
The 18 countries Apple names
Apple’s pricing and availability paragraph lists these as included in the September 18 wave: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Türkiye, the UAE, the UK, the US and Vietnam. Every one of the ten storefronts with published prices is on that list.
The word doing the work is “including”. There are more than 65 markets in the wave and Apple has named 18 of them, so a buyer in a country outside those 18 cannot tell from the release whether they are in the September 18 group or the September 25 group. The same wording problem applies to iPhone Duo, where Apple names no country in either wave.
Seven eSIM-only markets appear on no launch list
Apple does publish one detailed country list for iPhone 18 Pro, and it is about hardware rather than dates. The models sold in Bahrain, Canada, Guam, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US and the US Virgin Islands have no SIM tray.
- Five of those 12 are also in the named launch group: Canada, Japan, Mexico, the UAE and the US.
- The other seven, Bahrain, Guam, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the US Virgin Islands, are confirmed as eSIM-only without appearing on any published launch list.
- So Apple has told buyers in those markets what the phone will not have before telling them the day it arrives.
- Apple publishes no equivalent market list of any kind for iPhone Duo, so there is nothing to cross-check its two waves against.
Your own storefront is the only place to check
Apple’s regional store pages are inconsistent about this. The Singapore, UAE and Indian pages print the September 18 availability date next to the pre-order time. The Australian, Canadian, German, French, Japanese and UK pages print the pre-order time and leave the on-sale date to the press release, which is where the 65-plus and the 20 sit.
Nothing else about the schedule is negotiable at checkout. Apple publishes a shipping rule rather than an arrival date, its sales policies let it limit quantities or cancel an order, and the price you commit to is fixed by the storefront you order from.
What has not been confirmed
Apple has published no list of the 20 September 25 countries, no list for either iPhone Duo wave, no explanation for why the foldable reaches more markets than the Pro, and no statement that the second-wave markets can pre-order on the same day as the first. It has also published no stock information for any market, so nothing about supply can be reported either way. Our count of roughly 48 unnamed markets is arithmetic from Apple’s own figures, not a number Apple prints.
iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders open at 12:00 UTC today, Saturday, September 12, with sales on Friday, September 18 and the second wave on Friday, September 25. iPhone Duo pre-orders follow on October 16, with sales on October 23 and the second wave on October 30.
