Analysts predict that Apple will launch its first foldable iPhone next year, a move that is expected to bring the tech giant up to 65 billion US dollars in sales revenue.
Analysts at jpmorgan Chase said on Tuesday that the long-awaited first foldable phone from Apple is expected to be released in September 2026 as part of the iPhone 18 series, priced at $1,999.
Compared with other mobile phone manufacturers, Apple’s foldable phone has been slow to come out, while its main competitor Samsung has planned to launch a triple foldable phone before the end of this year.
According to relevant analyses, Apple’s first foldable phone may be similar to the design of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series.
Although Apple has not officially confirmed the release plan of foldable phones yet, jpmorgan Chase believes that in the case of insufficient appeal of the iPhone 17 series, foldable phones are the next reasonable development direction for Apple.
The launch of the foldable iPhone will be the most significant design revolution in the iPhone series since Jobs released the first iPhone in 2007.
Every year, Apple’s new product launches have drawn intense attention from users. Consumers often queue up all night just to be the first to purchase the new devices. However, as Apple’s update pace has gradually weakened in recent years, it often only offers relatively mediocre improvements, which have become increasingly less attractive to users.
Jpmorgan Chase pointed out that the upgrade of the iPhone 17 series to be released this autumn will still be “rather limited”, and investors’ focus has shifted to the new products next year.
Apple has brought its existing product types to the mainstream market on multiple occasions throughout its development history, including smartwatches and tablets.
Jpmorgan Chase predicts that this model will repeat itself. With Apple’s entry into the foldable phone market, the overall sales potential of foldable phones is expected to increase significantly starting from this year.
Samik Chatterjee, an analyst at the bank, said: “The foldable phone market is expected to remain a niche market and be positioned in the high-end segment of the entire smartphone market.”
Since the beginning of this year, Apple’s stock price has dropped by more than 15% cumulatively, and the market is concerned about multiple risk factors such as the additional tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in the United States.
To make matters worse, Jony Ive, the former chief designer of Apple, announced in May that he had joined OpenAI and participated in a $6.5 billion program aimed at creating a device that could challenge the iPhone.
Apple will release its latest financial report after the market closes on Thursday, Eastern Time in the United States.