iPhone 8 Release Date: Everything We Know About Apple’s New iPhone

Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone, possibly called the iPhone 8, iPhone X or iPhone Edition, is expected to be announced at the company’s big event on September 12. But when is the release date for the company’s ostensibly next-gen iPhone? When will buyers be able to place an order for one? When can they lay hands on the device itself?

We won’t know for sure until Apple provides that info, presumably when it unveils the new phone next week. But we can do some educated guessing based on the release trajectories that followed events in prior years. Here’s everything we know about the so-called iPhone 8’s release timeframe so far:

When will you be able to buy the iPhone 8?

If Apple announces its next-gen iPhone on Tuesday, September 12 as expected, the new phone could be available to preorder as early as Friday, September 15. Last year’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were announced on September 7 at an event in San Francisco, and preorders began at 3:01 a.m. ET on September 9 in the U.S.

But reports of summer manufacturing delays have prompted speculation that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will be available in only limited quantities. If accurate, and the new phone is made available to preorder on September 15, it could instantly sell out and be even harder to find than Nintendo’s similarly scarce Switch games console. But Apple’s own September-quarter earnings forecast, issued in early August, has thrown water on some of these worries, suggesting the company doesn’t expect to have availability problems.

Apple is also said to be planning updated versions of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, possibly dubbed iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, or alternately iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Those phones would likely be available to order in the traditional timeframe: the Friday following the event, September 15.

NEXT: iPhone 8 Specs: Everything We Know About Apple’s Next Big Phone

When is the iPhone 8 release date?

Apple has made September its new iPhone launch month annually since it rolled out the iPhone 5 back in 2012. As noted, last year’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were announced on September 7, with preorders following on September 9. The new phones were then released (in stores and to mail orders) a week later on Friday, September 16. If Apple follows suit this year, releasing its next iPhone a week or so after unveiling it, the iPhone 8 should appear in stores by September 22.

That’s what self-styled Twitter “mobile reporter” Benjamin Geskin claims, anyway, writing that U.K. telecommunications provider O2 has told its staff that the iPhone 8’s release date in stores is indeed September 22.

Note that if demand is sky-high, whether availability turns out to be limited or not, it’s entirely possible many could wind up waiting for months — even into 2018 — to lay hands on Apple’s next-gen iPhone.

How much will the iPhone 8 cost?

With all the new features expected in Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone, including an edge-to-edge screen (which may forego a Home button entirely) and face recognition technology, it’s probably no surprise that both the New York Times and Fast Company are reporting the iPhone 8 could cost in the vicinity of $1,000.

That would be considerably more than prior new iPhones, and could offset some of the uptake mania (as well as backorder queues) by driving impatient buyers to settle for the presumably less expensive (and more readily available) followups to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

This article was original published on August 30, 2017.