iPhone 17: Possibly Apple's longest-lasting number one ever
The iPhone 4 remained at the top of Apple's sales charts from June 2010 to October 2011. The iPhone 17 could now break this record.
iPhone 17, here in "Sage".
(Image: Sebastian Trepesch / heise medien)
Apple's iPhone 17 could break a very special record: that of the best-selling iPhone with the longest availability ever in the history of the product line. The reason is simple: Apple plans to postpone the successor, the iPhone 18, to spring 2027. This means: there will be up to 18 months between the iPhone 17 and iPhone 18. The impact this will have on sales figures is still unclear, but the business could at least be boosted in the short term by a planned price increase, motivating customers to buy quickly before price increases of up to 200 Euros are to be expected.
The history of iPhone postponements
For years, Apple had always presented all important iPhones in the fall, usually in September. This year, it is said to be different, with only three models supposedly coming, namely the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and the new Foldable iPhone Ultra. The iPhone 18 is now expected in the coming spring, along with a new “e” entry-level model (18e) and a second generation of the iPhone Air. Until now, spring had only been reserved for entry-level devices: Apple most recently released the iPhone 17e in March 2026 and before that the iPhone 16e in February 2026. Now Apple apparently plans an upgrade of the spring date – also to somewhat ease its fiscal year and expand the main business in the fourth quarter.
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The 18 months between iPhone 17 and iPhone 18 have not happened before, as the Apple blog 9to5Mac calculated. The iPhone 17 came in September 2025, the iPhone 18 will now follow at the latest in March 2027. Only during the transition from iPhone 4 to 4S was there a similarly long period of just under 16 months: from June 2010 to October 2011. In 2020, Apple also slightly interrupted the annual rhythm due to the Corona pandemic: the iPhone 11 Pro from September 2019 was only replaced by the iPhone 12 Pro in October 2020. But none of this comes close to the nearly 550 days now expected for the transition from iPhone 17 to iPhone 18.
Standard model is usually also the top model
The standard model is usually also the best-selling device for the iPhone, even though the Pro variants are gaining more and more market share for Apple. The planned postponement is therefore all the more significant. Apple might be hoping that customers will switch to the iPhone 18 Pro more readily.
The price difference between standard and Pro models is usually significant; for example, the iPhone 17 with 256 GByte currently costs 949 Euros at Apple, while the Pro model with 6.3 inches and 256 GByte costs 1299 Euros, and the larger Max model costs 1449 Euros.
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