Apple's $1,999 Foldable iPhone Is Here. The Stock Jumped Anyway.

On Wednesday, September 9, Apple held its "Surprise and Shine" event. It was the first big keynote from its new CEO, John Ternus. The main thing Apple showed was something it has never made before: a foldable iPhone. Apple calls the iPhone Duo "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original." But the bigger question is whether Apple can get millions of people to pay $1,999 for it.

What Apple Announced

The Duo has a 5.4-inch screen on the outside. When you open it up, you get a 7.6-inch screen inside, kind of like a small tablet. It runs on Apple's new A20 Pro chip and has two 48-megapixel cameras. There's also a hidden front camera under the inner screen. Apple says the battery can last up to 31 hours on the inner display. You can preorder it on October 16, and it comes out on October 23.

Apple also showed the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, which start at $1,199 and $1,299. They have a new variable aperture camera. The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is $799, and the new AirPods 5 are $129. The AirPods 5 are the first cheaper AirPods with active noise cancellation. The new watches also have a health sensor system that checks your heart rate every five seconds and gives you a daily readiness score from 0 to 10, and the Ultra 4 can last up to 50 hours on a charge. All of those come out on September 18.

The Price Problem

The Duo starts at $1,999 and goes up to $3,199 for the 2TB model. That's about $100 more than Samsung's regular Galaxy Z Fold8, which costs $1,899.99. But it's $100 less than Samsung's Fold8 Ultra at $2,099.99. The iPhone 18 Pro also costs $100 more than last year's iPhone 17 Pro.

Apple warned us about this. On his last earnings call as CEO in late July, Tim Cook said Apple is dealing with what he called "a 100-year flood on the memory pricing," because AI data centers are buying up so many memory chips. So higher iPhone prices might be one more place where the AI boom is starting to show up in what regular people pay.

There's another reason Apple can charge this much. One way to look at it is that Apple is betting people will pay more because the iPhone is not just a phone anymore. It works with AirPods, Watches, Macs, iCloud, and other services. That makes it harder to switch to a different brand, so Apple has more room to raise prices than most electronics companies do.

How the Stock Reacted

At first, the market wasn't impressed. Apple's stock dipped 0.28% on the day of the event and closed at $315.34. Then the next day, it jumped. Apple closed Thursday at $326.57, up about 3.6%. It rose another 1.8% on Friday to $332.27. The stock is now up more than 40% from a year ago.

One reason for the jump could be the price. Wall Street thought the Duo would cost $2,099 or more, so $1,999 was lower than people feared.

What Analysts Are Saying

Analysts seem to like the phone more than they know who it's for. According to a TrendSpider recap, Dan Ives estimated the foldable could make up about 20% of iPhone revenue. His reason is that about 300 million iPhone owners haven't upgraded in four years or more. The same recap says Bank of America cut its price target on Apple from $380 to $370. It said the lower Duo price means less revenue upside in the near term.

Some analysts weren't sure who would buy it. Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research said it "wasn't clear if the Duo is meant for work or play," and Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research called it a likely "status symbol" that will be hard to get at first. Counterpoint thinks Apple could sell about 6 million Duos by the end of the year.

The Bottom Line

Apple just made the biggest change to the iPhone ever, and investors liked it. But a $1,999 phone isn't for everyone. It also comes right after price increases across the whole lineup, which Apple blames on memory chips. At that price, Apple clearly isn't trying to make the Duo a phone for everyone, at least not yet. The real test is whether it stays a fancy product for a small group of buyers, or turns into the start of something Apple can eventually sell to everyone.