As reports point to a record-breaking price tag, Apple is betting it hasn’t found the ‘upper limit’ of what people will pay.
Apple’s iPhone Fold, which is expected to launch later this year, could be a triple-threat of industry “firsts” if the reports I’ve seen so far are accurate. It would be:
It’s that last point that I wanted to explore, as Apple’s most expensive starting price for an iPhone up until now has been $1,200. The iPhone Fold is tipped to cost double the iPhone 18 Pro Max (if Apple doesn’t hike the price for that upcoming phone) at a jaw-dropping $2,400.
If true, the iPhone Fold price would dwarf the $2,000 Samsung charges for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is our current best foldable phone. And it could wind up matching the price of the more ambitious 10-inch Galaxy Z TriFold once it reaches the U.S, with an estimated price of $2,400 to $2,500.
So could Apple actually charge $2,400 for the iPhone Fold and get away with it? The short answer is “yes.”
“Ever since the iPhone X came out for $1,000 Apple has been engaged in this ongoing experiment to find what’s the upper limit that people are willing to pay for an iPhone?” said Jason Snell, editor of the Apple-centric website Six Colors and former editorial director of Macworld. “I would say they haven’t found it.”
The iPhone Fold is tipped to have a different design than most books-style foldable phones. While the likes of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold have a square-like, 8-inch inner displays, the iPhone Fold is tipped to feature a 4:3 aspect ratio.
This would make the iPhone Fold’s rumored 7.8-inch main display wider. This means that you shouldn’t have to look at huge black bars above and below the screen when watching movies.
The outer display for the iPhone Fold is expected to be 5.5 inches and fairly wide as well, similar to a passport book.
In addition, Apple is reportedly working hard on a main display that is truly crease-free, though apparently there have been some challenges with this innovation.
But the most important thing about the iPhone Fold is that it’s an iPhone.
“The biggest thing is that it will tie into Apple’s ecosystem, and that’s the reason you buy an iPhone,” said Avi Greengart, founder and lead analyst for Techsponential. “It’s running the software that you’re already roughly familiar with. I assume there will be some new user interface designs, but maybe they’ll just pull them straight from the iPad, and you won’t need to learn anything new at all.”
Another potential selling point for the iPhone Fold is that it could be super thin. Leaks point to a thickness of just 4.5mm when open and 9mm when closed, even if that’s a hair thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 4.2mm and 8.9mm dimensions.
Many Apple observers have said that the iPhone Air released last year was a precursor to the iPhone Fold, as it allowed Apple to study how much tech it can pack into a super thin phone.
“Now that I’ve seen the iPhone Air, it is clear to me that it’s a step to a foldable iPhone,” said Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at Creative Strategies. “It’s going to be two Airs put together.”
While Samsung is working on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 at this point, and also reportedly a wide version of its foldable to fight the iPhone Fold, Apple has a big advantage when it comes to apps.
If one of the key selling points of a foldable phone is having a phone and tablet in one device, Apple has a not-so-secret weapon waiting in the wings. If you think about the iPhone Fold as an iPad mini when open, there are already over 1.8 million apps that are optimized and ready to go on day one.
Meanwhile, many apps on the Galaxy Z Fold series just look and feel like stretched-out phone versions.
“They have the advantage that they’ve had the iPad for 15 years, and the tablet software situation on iOS is so much better than on Android that if that’s the iPad Mini inside there,” Snell said. “That actually kind of sounds like a compelling product, albeit super expensive.”
Even though Apple isn’t expected to announce the iPhone Fold until later this fall, the sales estimates are pretty bullish at this stage. In fact, analyst firm IDC predicts that Apple will grab more than 20% market share once the Fold arrives and more than a third of the revenue.
“Apple’s volume and iPhone is so huge that I would not be surprised at all if that instantly became the best selling folding phone of all time,” Snell said.
However, the competition isn’t standing still. Samsung will bring the Galaxy Z TriFold with its huge 10-inch display to the U.S. at some point in the next three months.
Plus, Motorola has unveiled its first entry in the book-style foldable phone wars with the Razr Fold, which will likely undercut everyone on price. However, there’s no release date for the new Razr as of yet.
Regardless of price, the arrival of the iPhone Fold will likely help the visibility of a category that still represents just about 1.5 to 2.5% of the overall market.
“It’ll be an iPhone, and for many people, that is actually enough,” Greengart said.
