Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro launch skipped the long-rumoured foldable iPhone, focusing instead on the Pro and Pro Max models priced from $1,199 and $1,299.

The new iPhones run on a 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip and carry a 48-megapixel Fusion main camera with variable aperture.

The Pro Max offers up to 30 hours of battery life, and both models now offer a 2TB storage option for the first time.

Despite heavy speculation ahead of the event, no foldable device was announced, even as Apple introduced AirPods 5 alongside the new phones.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max open September 12, with shipping beginning September 18 in more than 65 countries.

Alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, Apple also introduced AirPods 5 with upgraded noise cancellation.

Notably, Apple did not unveil a foldable iPhone at the event, despite months of speculation that a folding device would debut alongside the iPhone 18 Pro series.

The standard iPhone 18, without the Pro branding, is not expected to launch until spring 2027, following a staggered release pattern Apple introduced with recent iPhone generations.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max’s 30-hour battery life claim represents an improvement Apple attributes partly to the new 2-nanometer manufacturing process behind the A20 Pro chip.

Indian pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro has not been officially confirmed by Apple as of this report, though early estimates put it in the range of the iPhone 17 Pro’s current price of Rs 1,34,900.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max also come in new colour options, including black, light blue, glacier and burgundy.

A smaller Dynamic Island on the new models can now display up to three Live Activities simultaneously, according to Apple.

Apple’s new Reference Image feature is designed to authenticate photos as unedited and free of AI generation, addressing growing concerns about image manipulation.

A person using an iPhone, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Apple’s launch event takes place Tuesday night, with the livestream from the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino beginning at 10:30pm IST.

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are expected to be at the centre of the announcements.

A first-ever foldable iPhone has also been the subject of heavy speculation, though Apple has not confirmed its design, specifications, price or name.

Camera system and battery life upgrades are widely tipped as focus areas for this year’s Pro models.

New devices typically become available for pre-order within days of the event, with retail availability in India usually following soon after.

Indian pricing for new iPhone models is usually announced alongside the US pricing at the event itself, with the devices going on sale in India on the same day as most other major markets.

Alongside new iPhones, Apple’s September events have historically also included updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods lineups.

Speculation ahead of the event has focused heavily on whether the rumoured foldable iPhone would launch immediately or simply be teased for a later release.

Apple’s livestream is typically available through its official website and the Apple TV app, without requiring a separate subscription to watch.

Analysts have pointed to camera system upgrades and battery life improvements as likely focus areas for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models.

Apple’s launch events are traditionally held at the Steve Jobs Theater within Apple Park, the company’s Cupertino headquarters, and are livestreamed globally.

Rumours of a foldable iPhone have circulated for over a year, with supply-chain reports pointing to a device that would mark Apple’s first major new form factor since the original iPhone.

The iPhone 18 series is expected to build on the design and camera changes introduced in the iPhone 17 line launched the previous year.

Steve Jobs Theater, Apple Park, Cupertino, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Indian AI startups raised more than $1 billion in funding during the first half of 2026, marking a 33 per cent increase over the $802 million raised in the same period last year.

The number of funding deals also climbed sharply, rising to 157 in the first half of this year from 112 in the same period of 2025, according to industry tracking data.

Sarvam AI led the funding activity with a $234 million round, backed by investors including HCLTech, Bessemer, Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners.

Freehand, a startup building AI agents for enterprise supply-chain spend management, raised $75 million, while smaller AI-focused startups including Pinegap, Superleap, Kily, Hulp, Consint.AI, Profound and NYAI also attracted capital during the period.

For the full year to date, Indian AI companies have raised a combined $1.34 billion in equity funding across 66 rounds, according to industry data.

Investors said the shift in funding patterns reflects a broader move away from thin, application-layer AI products and toward frontier technology, including sovereign language models, compute infrastructure and coding agents.

Industry analysts said the funding surge positions India as an increasingly significant player in the global AI investment landscape, though questions remain over whether current funding levels are sufficient to compete with better-capitalised markets internationally.

The rise in deal count alongside overall funding volume suggests investor interest has broadened beyond a handful of marquee companies to a wider base of early and growth-stage AI startups.

Sarvam AI, the largest recipient of funding in the first half, has focused on building sovereign large language models tailored to Indian languages, a segment investors have flagged as strategically important for the domestic market.

The broader funding total for 2026 stands at $1.34 billion across 66 rounds through the year so far, spanning companies working on everything from language models to enterprise automation tools.

Photo by Wangkanai, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0