It's official: There's no iPhone 18. Between the folding iPhone Duo and the top-tier iPhone 18 Pro handsets, Apple didn't announce any mid-range device. Android rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S26 can breathe a sigh of relief.

Usually, some Android phones released in the wake of the new iPhone try to copy many of Apple's ideas. Everyone called the Honor 600 an iPhone clone, and iPhone features slowly migrate to Android (well, the few that aren't already there).

You'd think that the lack of an iPhone 18 would stop this from happening. But I'm convinced one small mention in the iPhone 18 Pro announcement has given us a glimpse of next year's Android mobiles.

A burgundy iPhone 18 Pro shows us the future

Apple has started launching its Pro smartphones in a few standard colors, plus one distinctive option. This year, a burgundy iPhone model, like the one in the picture above, stands out from the crowd.

Wait, that's the prophecy of the future I was talking about? A smartphone with a hue named after the popular French wine? It sure is.

You see, the iPhone 18 Pro is the definition of an iterative update. It's a little more powerful, a little longer-lasting, and with a camera that's a little better. There's no major overhaul here.

Apple saved its innovations for the folding iPhone Duo, and the non-folding phones were left with little to set themselves apart. But that doesn't matter: color is all Apple needs to influence its rivals.

A history of iPhone colors smudging onto Android

Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police

Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police

Apple has sometimes been a little bolder with its color options than Android counterparts. Its vibrant Project RED comes to mind, as do some bright yellow iPhone 14s.

But that kicked into overdrive last year, when the iPhone 17 Pro launched in Cosmic Orange. You've probably seen this. It was in plenty of Apple commercials, and I've seen it in public more than any other kind of iPhone (or Android).

It's fun. It's distinctive. It's eye-catching and easy to spot in a crowd ... or at least it was at launch. But then Android brands, which hadn't previously been green with envy, got blue that they didn't have their own tangerine hue.

The Honor 600 and its Pro sibling come in basically the same color. The Oppo Find X9 Ultra has its Canyon Orange. The Pixel 11 Pro has a similar Canyon hue, which looks orange in certain lights, though it's a little more pink. I'm still counting it, though.

Perhaps this is because orange was on special offer at the phone decal shop? Nope. Reports from Financial Times point to the orange iPhone driving a huge sales increase in China. That's a big market, which Apple was winning thanks to its color choice.

Now, it'd be a lie to pretend that Apple invented orange smartphones. Samsung and Google have released them in the past, and CMF's whole thing is hypnotic orange.

But those first two companies haven't released an orange product in years (notwithstanding Google's sorta-orange). And CMF has been awfully quiet for a while.

Given how popular the Cosmic Orange iPhone was, it's hard to deny that this re-emergence of the color is down to Apple's use of it, and many Android brands' desire to position themselves as iPhone rivals.

It's a shame. Most Android users I speak to don't want Android brands to endlessly try to mimic Apple. It happens anyway.

Burgundy: the smartphone color of 2027

Apple was beaten to the punch with burgundy smartphones. The Xiaomi 18 Fold was released days before the iPhone event, in the hue you see above.

Because of the burgundy iPhone 18 Pro, I'm expecting to see plenty more similar-shaded Androids come out over the next year, like last time around.

I'd most expect to see these from Chinese brands, because these seem to be the ones which emulate iPhones more closely.

I'm talking Honor, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo. I don't imagine Samsung will follow suit. It's too big to need to ape Apple and, more importantly, sticks closely to its muted color palette.

Burgundy is a more specific color than orange. So we might see brands aim more widely at dark red, a hue used fairly frequently in top-tier mobiles.

The Sony Xperia 1 VIII, Honor Magic V6, and Oppo Find X9 Pro, to name a few, recently launched with dark-red variants. So perhaps Apple's impact will be felt less than last year.

It all depends on the popularity of the burgundy iPhone

I like orange smartphones. I like burgundy smartphones. I like any fun-colored smartphone, really. But I can see why Cosmic Orange exploded in popularity: it's dark enough to be classy, bright enough to be fun.

The burgundy iPhone 18 Pro isn't bright, so I'm not convinced it'll be as popular as the orange iPhone 17 Pro. And if it isn't, the Android world may ignore it. That's especially true with the Duo hurting the attention the 18 is getting.

So maybe, there'll be no red-phone trend to speak of. But that wouldn't be the end of the world, given the track record of red Android phones. Yes, I'm talking to you, RED Hydrogen One.

https://www.androidpolice.com/the-iphone-18-just-showed-us-2027s-next-android-trend/