Apple has taken its online store offline ahead of iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max pre-orders opening later today.
Customers visiting the Apple Store are being shown a holding page while Apple prepares the storefront for orders. In the United States, the company says pre-orders begin at 5 a.m. Pacific Time.
That means customers in the UK will be able to begin ordering at 1 p.m. BST on Saturday, September 12.
Temporarily closing the store ahead of a major iPhone pre-order launch is familiar territory for Apple, giving the company time to prepare its ordering systems before demand arrives. The Apple Post previously outlined how customers could prepare their iPhone 18 Pro configuration in advance to reduce the number of steps needed once ordering begins.
This year’s pre-orders are opening on a Saturday rather than the Friday Apple has commonly used for recent iPhone launches. Apple confirmed earlier this week that iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders would begin September 12 at 5 a.m. PT, with the phones arriving one week later.
iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199 in the United States, while iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299. Both models begin with 256GB of storage and are available in black, silver, glacier and burgundy.
The new Pro models introduce Apple’s A20 Pro chip, a 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, a smaller Dynamic Island, the C2 cellular modem and improved battery life. The Apple Post’s complete iPhone 18 Pro guide covers the new hardware, pricing and availability.
Apple says iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be released on Friday, September 18, when the first pre-orders are scheduled to reach customers and the devices become available in Apple Stores.
