Macworld
Last week’s Surprise and Shine event, where Apple announced new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods, was an enjoyable spectacle. The presentation was predictably professional, and the products looked great. But thanks to the high price of almost everything on display, the experience felt like visiting a car showroom and finding they only have McLaren F1s.
As happens every September, new iPhones were the focal point. Less traditionally, Apple declined to launch a new baseline iPhone, instead opting to push the iPhone 18 back to the spring. Which meant this event had nothing for the average buyer. In fall 2025, the cheapest phone on show was the iPhone 17, at $799. This year’s entry level was the iPhone 18 Pro, which thanks to the RAM crunch starts at a brutal $1,199. The 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299, and both can cost considerably more if you want extra storage. These are not reasonable numbers.
Oddly enough–and this may be deliberate–those price tags ended up looking slightly less unreasonable once we’d heard about the iPhone Duo. Again, it’s a stunning device that I for one can’t wait to try. But an entry price of $1,999, stretching to $3,199 for those who need 2TB of storage (more than they need, say, a second-hand car), puts it into that faintly surreal Vision Pro category where the individual digits don’t really matter. They may as well be letters, or hieroglyphs. The price is “too much.” The price is “ouch.”
Compared to the new phones, the Apple Watch can only be viewed as a bargain, particularly as the entry-level models for both Series and Ultra escaped a price hike from 2025 (though the 46mm model now starts at $449, $20 more than the Series 11). But for this range too Apple displayed an odd lack of interest in customers on a budget. Just as it neglected the baseline iPhone, the company declined to launch a new version of the wonderful-value Apple Watch SE. While reviving, albeit under different branding and at a somewhat less exorbitant price, the premium ceramic edition starting at $899. In 2025 the cheapest new watch cost $249. This year the barrier for entry is $399 unless you want last-year’s SE.
This is not to say, of course, that nobody will buy the new products. Apple fans are often characterised as being both wealthy and happy to spend money on tech they don’t entirely need, and this stereotype isn’t entirely false.
The novelty of the iPhone Duo is a glittering lure, and early adopters tend to be willing to pay big for the bragging rights associated with owning the New Thing. The iPhone 18 Pro isn’t that much more expensive than the 17 Pro (even if it’s tempting to point out that the 17 Pro was overpriced too). There are still cheaper products on the Apple site, including the iPhone 17 and 17e, though those devices cost $100 more than they did before the event. And Apple’s less stereotypically rich fans at least got the consolation of the new AirPods 5, which effectively received a price cut because they now always come with ANC, at the price of the non-ANC AirPods 4.
But this event still felt like something new: the crossing of a line in the sand. At a time when many Americans are struggling to cope with the cost of living, Apple decided that by far its biggest event of the year, one live-streamed by tens of millions of fans, would focus on products which those same Americans simply won’t be able to afford.
A couple of years ago Apple gave up on the budget-focused iPhone SE, replacing it with the mid-price iPhone 16e. Now the company has shunted even the $799 baseline iPhone away from the spotlight and made anyone without $1,199 to spare wait half a year for new hardware. It’s skipped a year on its most affordable smartwatch. And it’s simultaneously added new high-priced versions to both lines of products.
Don’t get me wrong: the event was still fun and the products all look great. But it was fundamentally different to September launch events of the past. Apple wasn’t trying to sell us a bunch of new products. It was showing us what we’re missing.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.
Surprise and Shine: Apple event specialiPhone Duo: The 5 most important things you need to know.
Four features that take iPhone 18 Pro to the next level.
AirPods 5: The 5 coolest features Apple announced.
The 7 biggest surprises sprung by the Apple Watch Series 12 (and Ultra 4).
After the excitement wears off, iPhone Duo’s limitations remain.
iPhone Duo helps us to understand the touchscreen MacBook.
Everything Apple announced at its Surprise and Shine event.
Podcast of the weekIn the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast, we talk about Apple’s new iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Ultra, Apple Watch Series 12, and a lot more. Tune in to find out more!
You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Video of the week@macworld.comNow I have to learn how to use an iPhone all over again. The iPhone Duo is going to change the way we interact with iPhones. Is it for the better? #iphoneduo #apple #macworld
♬ original sound – Macworld – Macworld
Great! Now we have to learn how to use an iPhone all over again. For more videos, follow us on TikTok and Instagram.
Software updates, bugs, and problemsWhy Apple’s new audio AI features aren’t the privacy nightmare you think they are.
The new Apple Watch can’t be used for secret surveillance, Apple insists.
Your old iPhone is about to get faster.
iOS 27 has an Easter egg that will delight longtime Apple fans.
And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.