(Credit: Eric Zeman/PCMag)
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Remember when Apple skipped the iPhone 9 and went straight to the iPhone X to mark its 10th anniversary? Something similar could be in the cards for the iPhone's 20th anniversary.
As ETNews reports, Omdia senior researcher Heo Moo-yeol believes Apple will go from the iPhone 18 next year to the iPhone 20 in 2027. He also expects the iPhone 20 to make its debut early in the year alongside the iPhone 18e, with the iPhone 20 Air, Pro, Pro Max, and iPhone Fold 2 in the second half of 2027.
Other analysts have made similar projections. Over the summer, we heard rumors that Apple will refresh its lower-cost smartphone with an iPhone 17e in early 2026. It will then announce four new iPhones in September 2026, but it won't release the standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e until the spring of 2027.
Notably, Apple also skipped the number 19 for iOS this year. It went from iOS 18 to iOS 26 to align its software version numbers with the year after their release—an approach popularized by car manufacturers.
Microsoft made a similar decision in skipping Windows 9 to launch Windows 10 in 2015. At the time, Microsoft talked about it being the "last" version of Windows, but we later got Windows 11, and Windows 12 is on the horizon.