On Wednesday, Apple unveiled its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, to usher in the era of its new chief John Ternus, while raising the price of its iPhone Pro by $100, a model that had until now been spared by the memory‑chip shortage.
“Others have created foldables that look like two phones awkwardly glued together,” boasted John Ternus in a pre-recorded video presenting the device, passport-sized, which unfolds to reveal a screen “as natural and intuitive as the iPad.”
Seven years after Samsung, the iPhone Duo, available from October 23 at around $2,000 (€1,718), enters a niche—less than 2% of global smartphone sales—but IDC forecasts that Apple should capture nearly a third as early as this year.
The group, lagging behind in artificial intelligence (AI), also outlined the schedule for its redesigned Siri assistant, available in French starting in October but absent from the EU version of iPhone at launch, and introduced its Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 watches as well as AirPods 5 earbuds.
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are launched at $1,199 and $1,299 (€1,030 and €1,116), i.e., $100 more than the iPhone 17 line at launch.
Apple, which did not unveil a standard iPhone 18 on Wednesday, did not justify this price increase, the first on its flagship line since the start of the memory-chip shortage.
At the end of June, the group had raised prices for its Macs and iPads, citing the impact of component shortages caused by the AI boom, and then warned in July that smartphones would follow.
In this shrinking market, where prices are rising and deliveries are dipping to unprecedented levels, foldables are the only category expected to grow, precisely thanks to Apple’s entry, IDC notes.
Chinese competitors had moved ahead: Huawei unveiled on Monday its Mate XT 2 with three hinges, starting at 19,999 yuan (€2,560), and Xiaomi its 18 Fold, from 10,999 yuan (€1,410).
The Cupertino group says it has reduced the visible crease in the middle of the display, the main criticism of foldables, and promises a titanium frame.
The new Siri AI assistant, unveiled in June, will ship in a beta version on September 14 in English, then in October in French, Korean, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.
More sophisticated AI features will also be rationed daily, but “expanded access will be offered for a fee in the future,” the group said.
