Apple spent September 9 introducing hardware. It also stopped selling a long list of it, and said nothing about any of that. The two biggest departures are iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, discontinued one year after they launched at $1,099 and $1,199, followed by iPhone 16 Plus, which is simply gone from the lineup.
There is no Apple announcement to point to for any of this. Discontinuations appear only as changes to Apple’s own store pages, and this year they landed alongside $100 price rises on the four older iPhones Apple kept.
Key facts: what left Apple’s store
| Product | What Apple’s store shows now | Closest replacement Apple sells |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone 17 Pro | Discontinued | iPhone 18 Pro, from $1,199 |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | Discontinued | iPhone 18 Pro Max, from $1,299 |
| iPhone 16 Plus | Removed from the lineup | No model at that size |
| iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max | No longer sold | iPhone 18 Pro line |
| iPhone 16e | No longer sold | iPhone 17e, from $699 |
| Apple Watch Series 11 | Store page no longer resolves | Apple Watch Series 12, from $399 |
| Apple Watch Ultra 3 | No longer sold | Apple Watch Ultra 4, from $799 |
| AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC | Apple’s AirPods 4 page now shows AirPods 5 | AirPods 5 at $129, or $149 with the Wireless Charging Case |
| AirPods Max with USB-C | Apple’s AirPods Max page now shows AirPods Max 2 | AirPods Max 2 at $549 |
Every row is a reading of Apple’s own store pages on September 10. Apple has published no notice and no press release for a single one of them.
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The part that breaks the usual pattern
Normally the outgoing model becomes the bargain: Apple keeps it, drops the price, and last year’s phone turns into this year’s value buy. That is not what happened. Apple removed both outgoing Pro phones outright and raised the price of everything it kept.
The four carried-over iPhones now list at $699 for iPhone 17e, $799 for iPhone 16, $899 for iPhone 17 and $1,099 for iPhone Air on Apple’s Store pages. Each is $100 above what Apple listed for it before the event, which is covered alongside everything else announced in our event recap.
What to do if you wanted one of the discontinued models
The first route is Apple Certified Refurbished, and right now it is closed for the newest of these. As of September 10 the refurbished iPhone catalogue’s newest listing was an iPhone 16 with 512GB at $909, with no iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17e or iPhone Air anywhere in it. Apple publishes no schedule for when a model joins the catalogue. Apple lists Watch and AirPods as refurbished categories too, with the same absence of any published timetable.
The second route is the carriers and the big retailers, who are still selling last year’s phones on last year’s terms. AT&T’s own deals page still leads with iPhone 17 Pro Max at up to $1,100 off with an eligible trade-in valued at $290 or more and an eligible plan, for new and existing customers. Best Buy’s live iPhone promotions are also last generation, at up to $1,100 off iPhone 17 Pro or Pro Max with a qualified AT&T activation and trade-in, and up to $830 with a qualified Verizon myPlan activation and trade-in.
Read those numbers carefully, because they are not discounts. Both arrive as monthly bill credits spread over 24 to 36 months on a qualifying plan. You see the full amount only if you stay on that carrier and that plan for the entire term, and the remaining credits stop if you leave early.
What a used one is actually worth
The third route is the resale market, and Apple gives you a useful anchor for it. These are the values recorded for individual models since September 9, rather than a table Apple publishes, and each is an upper bound for a device in good condition.
| Model | What Apple credits toward a new purchase |
|---|---|
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | Up to $885 |
| iPhone 17 Pro | Up to $785 |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | Up to $610 |
| iPhone 16 Pro | Up to $510 |
| iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus | Up to $430 |
| iPhone 16e | Up to $270 |
| Apple Watch Ultra 3 | Up to $430 |
| Apple Watch Series 11 | Up to $200 |
That is what Apple will pay you for one, so treat it as the sensible floor when a private seller quotes a price for the same phone in the same condition. Apple’s own published range for this launch is $175 to $885 in credit for an iPhone 13 or later, and the $885 end needs an iPhone 17 Pro Max in top condition.
One caution applies to every non-Apple route: a device bought second hand carries only whatever is left of the original warranty, and Apple has not published AppleCare+ prices for anything launched in September 2026.
What has not been confirmed
- Apple has issued no discontinuation notice for any product listed here. The evidence is the store pages themselves.
- Apple has not said whether iPhone 17 generation devices will be refurbished, or when.
- Verizon has published no iPhone 18 Pro offer of any kind, and AT&T’s own site carries no iPhone 18 Pro offer either.
- T-Mobile’s terms could not be verified on its own site, so anything attributed to it remains unconfirmed.
- AppleCare+ prices for the September 2026 products are not published.
If you are still chasing a discontinued model, the clock matters. iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders open on Saturday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT and it ships on Friday, September 18, the same day as AirPods 5 and Apple Watch Series 12. Apple has published nothing to suggest any of the discontinued models comes back.
