Preorder data for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max is tracking below the iPhone 17 series in its first week, according to GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu and JPMorgan’s Samik Chatterjee, raising an early question mark over the first product cycle fully owned by new chief executive John Ternus. The Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299; a foldable Duo at $1,999 will not open for preorders until Oct. 16. Shares slipped 0.52% on the day of the source report.
Preorder data and analyst views
Pu described demand as lukewarm and pointed to modest feature changes combined with the higher price tier. Chatterjee, tracking delivery lead times in the U.S., China, Germany and the U.K., said week-one trends for the two available models are running behind the prior generation and speculated that buyers, especially in China, are waiting for the Duo. Neither analyst cited hard unit numbers; both relied on lead-time proxies.
The product lineup
The 18 series introduces a 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip built for Apple Intelligence and the new Siri AI, the largest battery-life gain in the company’s history, and a variable-aperture camera system. The Duo folds from a 5.4-inch outer screen to a 7.6-inch inner display. Motorola, Samsung and Alphabet already sell foldables in volume, so the form factor is not new to the market.
Siri AI and the revenue context
Siri AI arrives with iOS 27, billed as a “profoundly more capable and conversational assistant” that can draft emails, review messages and answer questions about on-screen content. The assistant has lost ground to generative chatbots such as Claude and ChatGPT. iPhone sales generated $54.25 billion of the $109.41 billion fiscal third-quarter revenue reported for the period ending June 27, making the September launch the traditional catalyst for the year-end quarter.
What to watch
If the Pro models finish the quarter flat, the impact will show in the final three months of 2026. The bull case rests entirely on the Duo pulling forward demand in October. With 2.5 billion active devices in the installed base, even a modest upgrade rate moves the needle, but the early signals suggest the market is not rushing.