The Apple Store has gone offline ahead of the company’s “Surprise and Shine” event, fuelling speculation that new products are about to be added to the online shop.
Visitors to Apple’s website were met with a message stating: “Be right back. We’re making updates to the Apple Store. Check back soon.” The disruption was reported on Wednesday, 9 September, several hours before the launch presentation is due to begin.
The outage is a familiar pre-launch ritual for Apple and does not confirm which products will be announced. However, it has intensified anticipation among customers waiting for the company’s next generation of devices.
Apple’s event will begin at 6pm British Summer Time, or 10am local time in California, at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, Cupertino. It will be streamed through Apple’s website, Apple TV and YouTube.
The presentation is expected to be led by John Ternus, who became Apple’s chief executive on 1 September after Tim Cook stepped aside following 15 years in the role.
Foldable iPhone expected to headline Apple event
The most closely watched announcement is expected to be Apple’s first foldable smartphone, which has been widely tipped to carry the name iPhone Ultra.
Apple has yet to confirm the device, but reports suggest it could open like a book to reveal a much larger internal display, alongside a separate screen on the outside. The phone is also expected to sit at the very top of Apple’s range, with reports putting its price at about $2,000 (£1,470) or more.
The company is arriving relatively late to the foldable market, where Samsung, Motorola and other manufacturers have already established competing products. That means the new iPhone would need to offer a particularly durable screen and a less noticeable crease to stand out.
Reports have also suggested that the foldable model could be offered initially in black and white, while potentially making compromises on its camera system in order to accommodate the folding design.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max alongside the foldable device. Possible upgrades include improved cameras, more powerful chips designed to handle artificial-intelligence tasks and changes to the Face ID system.
The premium models are also rumoured to feature a variable-aperture telephoto camera, a technology more commonly associated with dedicated cameras that allows the amount of light entering the lens to be adjusted mechanically.
New Apple Watch and AirPods also tipped
The company is expected to refresh its wearable range with the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. Likely improvements include faster processors, better battery performance and updated health sensors, with a ceramic case option also rumoured for the standard model.
New AirPods are also expected, including standard AirPods 5 and a version with active noise cancellation. The update is likely to focus on sound quality, battery life and health-related features rather than the camera-equipped headphones mentioned in earlier reports.
Those devices are not expected until at least 2027, meaning the headphones unveiled at Wednesday’s event may represent a more modest upgrade to the current AirPods range.
Apple could also introduce a second-generation HomePod Mini, potentially designed to make better use of the company’s developing artificial-intelligence and Siri features.
The Apple Store remained unavailable during the morning, with the maintenance notice offering customers the option to watch the forthcoming event instead. Fans on social media treated the shutdown as a sign that the long-awaited announcements were now imminent.
