Apple’s press release says iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max “will be available in 20 other countries and regions beginning Friday, September 25”. It has not named a single one of them, and it has not said when those markets can pre-order.
That is the whole of the second-wave story as Apple has published it: a count and a date. Everything else being written about which countries are in that group is inference rather than something Apple has stated.
| Key fact | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| First wave | “More than 65 countries and regions”, 18 of them named |
| First-wave pre-order | 5 a.m. PT, Saturday, September 12 |
| First-wave availability | Friday, September 18 |
| Second wave | “20 other countries and regions”, none named |
| Second-wave availability | Friday, September 25 |
| Second-wave pre-order date | Not published |
| iOS 27 | Monday, September 14, free |
| iPhone Duo | 70 plus countries on October 23, 28 more on October 30 |
The 18 countries Apple did name
Apple’s first-wave sentence names Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Türkiye, the UAE, the UK, the US and Vietnam.
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That is 18 entries against a total Apple describes only as more than 65, so at least 47 first-wave markets are unnamed as well. The naming is illustrative, not a list.
It is a useful sentence all the same. If your country appears in it, you can pre-order on Saturday and expect the phone on September 18. If it does not, Apple’s release gives you no way to tell which of the two waves you are in.
What a second-wave buyer does not know
- Whether pre-orders in those 20 markets open on September 12 with everyone else, later, or at all before the phones arrive.
- Which 20 markets they are. Apple gives a number and no names.
- What it will cost locally. Apple has published prices for ten storefronts, and every one of them is named in the first-wave sentence.
- Whether stock is allocated differently. Apple publishes no stock data anywhere, and its sales policies reserve the right to limit quantities.
One trap worth naming: the eSIM-only list and the availability waves are separate lists. Apple names Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia among the 12 markets with no SIM tray, and does not place them in either wave in public, so an eSIM market is not automatically a first-wave market.
What arrives everywhere on September 14 regardless
iOS 27 ships on Monday, September 14 as a free update for iPhone 11 and later plus iPhone SE second generation and later, which is four days before any phone reaches a shop.
Apple Intelligence is a narrower matter. It covers 16 languages, Siri AI starts in English, and Apple has published no month and no language list for the next round, so a second-wave buyer inherits the same software timetable as everyone else and the same gaps.
How the rest of the lineup is phased
| Product | First availability | How Apple describes the markets | Second wave |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max | Friday, September 18 | More than 65, with 18 named | 20 more on Friday, September 25 |
| Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 | Friday, September 18 | Nine named, plus more than 50 others | None published |
| AirPods 5 | Friday, September 18 | The US and more than 65 others | None published |
| iPhone Duo | Friday, October 23 | More than 70 | 28 more on Friday, October 30 |
Only the two iPhone lines are split into waves at all. The watches and the earbuds are described as a single launch, and Apple has published no follow-on date for either.
Apple does vary its timings by market in smaller ways, which is worth knowing before assuming a rule. Singapore, for one, opened AirPods 5 pre-orders on Friday, September 11 rather than September 9.
What Apple has not said
- The names of the 20 second-wave countries and regions.
- A pre-order date or time for those markets.
- The names of the 28 iPhone Duo markets that follow on October 30.
- Whether pricing in a second-wave market is set at the same time as the first wave, or later.
The dates that are fixed are these: pre-orders on Saturday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT, iOS 27 on Monday, September 14, the first wave on Friday, September 18, and the second wave on Friday, September 25. Our event recap covers everything else Apple announced that week.
