🍎 Apple Event 2026: What Apple Showed at Its First Presentation Without Tim Cook
⚡️ September 9 · special plugoShots · Apple Event recap
Today at 8:00 PM Moscow time, Apple’s traditional September presentation — Surprise and shine — kicked off at Apple Park.
I followed the event live and, as usual, pulled out only the things that really matter. Here’s what Apple showed today:
iPhone 18 Pro / Pro Max, AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12 / Ultra 4, and Apple’s first foldable iPhone — Duo.
Details — below.
Today’s announcement was unusual for two reasons.
- First, this was Apple’s first major product event after Tim Cook’s departure, and the first September launch under John Ternus.
- Second, according to multiple reports ahead of the event, Apple was finally expected to unveil the long-awaited foldable iPhone the market had been anticipating for years.
So today, we’re looking at more than just the products. We’re watching three potential transitions at once:
- Cook → Ternus
- Annual iPhone cycle → Split cycle
- Flat smartphone → Foldable form factor
And most importantly, we’re testing a bigger hypothesis: has a genuinely new era begun at Apple — or has only the person on stage changed?
So, here’s what Apple showed today.
0 | The First Apple Without Cook
On the surface, Apple has not suddenly become a different company: the familiar stage, the same pacing, the same product-driven dramaturgy.
But symbolically, this was a major moment: for the first time in many years, a September iPhone Event was not opened by Tim Cook.
Cook did appear in the opening video — and quite literally handed the stage over to Ternus with the line:
“Not me. That’s your guy.”
The symbolic handover was almost deliberately explicit 🤝 ❤️
John Ternus opened his first major Apple product presentation as CEO — and received a standing ovation.
Ternus immediately made it clear that his first keynote would be built around the products, not himself.
And that makes sense: today, his task was not so much to prove that he can become “the new Cook,” but to show that Apple under its new CEO can still surprise people with hardware.
1 | iPhone 18 Pro / Pro Max
The First Major Product of the New Era
Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
The biggest technical transition is the new A20 Pro processor built on a 2nm process. It is the first iPhone chip of this class, and Apple is clearly using it not just to chase benchmark records, but as the foundation for much heavier on-device AI workloads.
The new vapor chamber is three times larger, which should help the phones sustain peak performance for longer under heavy loads. Dynamic Island has also been reduced by roughly a third.
The cameras received a significant upgrade as well. The main sensor now has a variable aperture, more manual controls, and a Reference Image mode designed to help verify whether a photo is authentic and distinguish it from an AI-generated image.
This is no longer just another camera feature.
It is an attempt to build a trust layer directly into the device.
Another major focus is the new Siri and local AI processing. Apple continues to push its long-standing approach:
AI — but private, and on the device.
Reuters reports that the updated Siri is expected to work with around 300,000 apps. One particularly important detail: Apple is entering the fight against AI-generated fakes.
The iPhone 18 Pro now includes Apple Reference Image, a mechanism for verifying the authenticity of photos taken with the camera. Apple will also support SynthID for labeling images created or modified by AI.
Against the backdrop of explosive growth in synthetic media, this is no longer simply a camera feature — it is an attempt to turn the iPhone into a source of trusted digital evidence. The feature, however, will not be available in the EU or China.
Prices went up by $100:
iPhone 18 Pro — from $1,199
iPhone 18 Pro Max — from $1,299
That is another meaningful signal: Apple is pushing the iPhone lineup even more aggressively up the price ladder.
And one more SIGNAL from the evening:
Apple is not trying to win the AI race by having the largest number of models. It is trying to embed AI deeper into the iPhone’s hardware stack.
2 | AirPods 5
Apple also introduced AirPods 5 — the first major update to the lineup since AirPods 4 in 2024.
The AirPods 5 look almost unchanged on the outside, but functionally they have moved significantly closer to the Pro line.
The main upgrade is a new acoustic architecture and substantially improved Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). Apple claims roughly 50% better noise cancellation than the previous generation.
Volume can now also be controlled directly from the stem — a first for the open-fit AirPods design.
There are also Live Translations and deeper integration with Apple Intelligence.
So far, this does not look like a revolution.
It looks more like a very careful refinement of a mass-market product: better ANC, slightly more convenient controls, and no dramatic price increase.
But there is an interesting bit of symbolism here: Ternus himself once oversaw Apple’s hardware organization during the era when the original AirPods launched. Now the new generation is debuting at his first Event as CEO. There is also a strong commercial angle.
The basic AirPods 5 cost $129, while the version with a wireless charging case costs $149. Pre-orders opened today, with sales beginning September 18.
3 | Apple Watch: Betting on Health, Without Trying to Reinvent the Form
Apple also refreshed the Apple Watch lineup.
The main focus is improved health tracking and more accurate heart-rate monitoring. Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 received a new Health Sensing System.
The sensors have been redesigned, and heart rate is now measured every five seconds — 60 times more frequently than before. That should allow the watches to track HRV more accurately and detect abnormal changes in heart rhythm.
The Health app now includes Readiness, which evaluates the user’s condition and can even recommend postponing a workout. Siri Recap creates a short summary of important information heard throughout the day. Apple’s strategy here remains remarkably consistent:
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the Watch is being sold less and less as “a watch with notifications” and more and more as a personal health sensor.
In this category, Apple is clearly continuing its long-term strategy: the Watch is gradually becoming less of a gadget and more of a personal health sensor worn on the wrist.
Series 12 offers up to 24 hours of battery life; Ultra 4 — up to 48 hours.
Prices:
$399 for Series 12
$799 for Ultra 4
4 | Apple Finally Unveiled a Foldable iPhone — Duo
Here it is: the biggest announcement of the evening.
Apple unveiled Duo, its first foldable iPhone — and arguably the most significant change to the physical form of its flagship product since the iPhone X.
The device uses a “passport-style” format: a smaller outer display and a wide foldable screen inside.
When closed, it is almost literally passport-sized: 5.4-inch outer displa,
7.6-inch inner display — the largest ever on an iPhone
When unfolded, Duo becomes Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever:
The body uses titanium + Ceramic Shield and carries an IP68 rating. Inside is the same A20 Pro.
But there are two unexpected decisions:
- instead of Face ID, Apple uses Touch ID in the side button;
- the internal selfie camera is hidden under the display.
This product matters not because Apple has simply launched “another new device.” Foldables have been on the market for years — Samsung and Huawei started selling them back in 2019.
Apple is entering late. But precisely because it is entering late, it can try to do what it historically does best: take an existing category and turn it from a niche into mainstream premium.
Initial expectations had put the starting price at around $2,200, making Duo not a replacement for a standard iPhone, but a completely new category at the very top of Apple’s lineup.
The actual price: from $1,999 for 256 GB. Pre-orders begin October 16. Sales start October 23.
Apple is not catching up with the foldable market. It has immediately placed Duo in a separate ultra-premium tier.
IDC expects Apple could capture around 40% of the foldable market by the end of next year.
5 | My Takeaways
5.1 | What Changed Under Ternus
John Ternus’s first presentation felt more like an evolution of Apple than a public break with the Cook era.
There was no attempt to reinvent Apple’s presentation style on stage: the same meticulously controlled production, the same product pacing, the same emphasis on the combination of hardware + software + ecosystem.
But beneath the surface, the shift is noticeable.
Apple simultaneously did several things it had avoided for years:
- entered the foldable market;
- broke up the traditional unified fall iPhone cycle;
- pushed the upper price ceiling of the smartphone even higher — Duo at $1,999 is no longer just another iPhone configuration, but an entirely new ultra-premium layer of the product lineup.
So my first conclusion about Ternus would be:
The new Apple still looks familiar. But it already seems noticeably less afraid to break its own old rules.
And that may be more important than changing the scenery on stage.
5.2 | The Main SIGNAL: Apple Wants to Change the Shape of the Market Again — Not Just the Product
Foldable smartphones have existed for years.
Samsung, Huawei and others have already gone through several generations of devices, while the category itself has remained relatively niche.
Apple has arrived late — at a point when the technology around displays, hinges, batteries and software has matured enough.
This is very Apple.
The company rarely tries to be the first to prove that a new category is technically possible.
It is much more interested in entering later — and trying to make that category easy to understand, desirable and expensive at mass-market scale.
But there was an even broader transition today:
- iPhone → personal AI hub
- Flat smartphone → Foldable
- Annual cycle → Split cycle
- Premium → Ultra-premium
In other words, for the first time in quite a while, Apple is simultaneously changing the form factor, product calendar, pricing architecture and the role of the iPhone itself.
My Main SIGNAL From This Event
Apple is once again trying not to chase a technology trend, but to determine the moment when that trend becomes a market.
With foldables, Apple apparently believes that moment has arrived.
And now the main question is no longer:
Why do we need a foldable iPhone?..
The real question is:
Can Apple do to foldables what it once did to smartphones, smartwatches and wireless headphones — take a category that existed before Apple entered it and turn it into the new normal?
⚡️ September 9 · special plugoShots · Apple Event recap
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