Apples first foldable iPhone reportedly lands 9th September, price $2,000+

[StarforgeSocket]

Apple is planning a launch event around September 9th to unveil its first ever foldable iPhone, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, alongside the standard iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max lineup. The device would mark Apple's first genuinely new hardware form factor since the Vision Pro launched back in 2023, and depending on how you count it, arguably the biggest single change to the iPhone's basic design since the product line began back in 2007.

Pricing rumors point to something north of $2,000 dollars, positioning the foldable well above even Apple's existing Pro Max tier and squarely into premium flagship territory that most foldables from Samsung and various Chinese manufacturers have occupied for years already. Design details that have leaked so far describe a book style hinge with an internal display close in size to an iPad mini when unfolded, using a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the taller, narrower shape most competing foldables have gone with.

Getting to this point wasn't smooth. Earlier reporting from Nikkei Asia in the spring suggested the foldable might slip past this fall entirely due to unspecified engineering challenges, a report that briefly knocked Apple's stock down as much as 5 percent before Gurman pushed back with reporting that the device remained on track. More recent leaks describe manufacturing problems getting resolved without the kind of major redesign some had speculated about, and production has reportedly ramped toward roughly 10 million units for this year, up from earlier, more conservative forecasts.

What makes this launch genuinely notable beyond just Apple entering a category it's stayed out of for years is the internal reshuffling behind it. Reports have described a meaningful chunk of the team that previously worked on Vision Pro getting shifted over to the foldable project, suggesting Apple is treating this less as a routine iPhone variant and more as a flagship level bet on an entirely new hardware direction

Apple to launch $2,000-plus foldable 'iPhone Ultra' in early September: report | Fortunefortune.com

[RheaRipley]

2,000 dollars plus for a first generation foldable feels steep even by Apple's usual pricing standards. Early adopters are basically paying a premium to be Apple's beta testers for hinge durability at that price point

[Orbit William]

Going with a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of matching Samsung's taller, narrower foldable format is an interesting differentiation choice. Feels more like a small iPad than a stretched phone, which could appeal to a genuinely different use case than what Samsung's been selling for years

[Abbie61]

Manufacturing problems getting solved without a major redesign is honestly the more reassuring detail buried in this story compared to the launch date itself. A late stage major redesign this close to a supposed September launch would be a much bigger red flag than the timeline slipping by a few weeks

[Harper48]

The Vision Pro team getting reassigned to this project is the detail that actually tells you the most about how Apple is internally prioritizing this launch. Vision Pro has clearly underperformed relative to Apple's original ambitions for it, and shifting that same engineering talent toward a foldable phone suggests leadership sees more near term commercial upside here than in continuing to push spatial computing forward right now. That's a meaningful signal about where Apple's actual product roadmap priorities sit heading into next year. Doesn't necessarily mean Vision Pro is dead, but it's not getting the same level of internal attention it once had

[Ivory Boar]

The stock drop after that Nikkei delay report and subsequent Gurman pushback is a good little case study in how differently the market treats various tech journalists' reporting on Apple specifically. Gurman has built enough of a track record with accurate Apple supply chain sourcing that his pushback alone was apparently enough to move sentiment back the other direction almost immediately.

That's a pretty unusual amount of market moving credibility for an individual reporter to hold, even a well sourced one, and it says something about how thin and rumor dependent actual public information about Apple's roadmap really is most of the time. Official confirmation from Apple itself basically never happens until the actual announcement, so the market ends up trading on a small handful of trusted leakers' competing claims in the meantime. That's a strange information environment for a company this large and this closely watched. Worth remembering that even Gurman gets things wrong sometimes despite the market's apparent confidence in him

[Matt_81]

Curious how repairability actually turns out on this thing given how notoriously fragile foldable hinges have historically been across the entire industry, not just Apple. A 2,000 dollar phone that needs an expensive hinge repair after eighteen months of normal use would be a genuinely rough customer experience. Would want to see real durability testing before recommending this to anyone who isn't specifically excited about being an early adopter

[Indexer Cheetah]

Ten million units planned for the first year is a fairly aggressive initial production target for a completely new, unproven form factor at this price point. Apple usually starts more conservative with genuinely new product categories and scales up once demand signals come in. Suggests they're feeling pretty confident about early demand already