Apple’s $2,000 foldable iPhone: Can it finally make foldable phones mainstream?

By Sohail Khan 8 September 2026, 7:44 pm

Apple’s expected ,000 foldable iPhone could change the smartphone market, but its high price raises questions about demand and mainstream appeal.

Updated on: Sep 8, 2026, 19:48:36 IST

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Apple is expected to launch its first foldable iPhone on Wednesday at its annual product event in Cupertino, California. The phone is expected to have a bendable display that opens and closes like a book, according to three people familiar with the project who spoke anonymously to The New York Times.

The foldable iPhone could be Apple’s biggest design change in years. Since the original iPhone launched in 2007, Apple has kept the basic design of a rectangular screen with a glass or metal back, even as it made the phone thinner, changed its edges and removed the Home button.

Foldable iPhone price

The launch could be a major test for foldable phones. Foldable smartphones have been commercially available since 2018, but they still account for only a very small part of the overall smartphone market. Apple could use the foldable iPhone to take a niche technology into the mainstream. The company has often entered product categories after other companies and then tried to make its version more polished, easier to market and available to millions of customers quickly, The New York Times reported.

$2,000 iPhone

The expected price could be the biggest challenge. The base model of the foldable iPhone is likely to cost at least $2,000, UBS analyst David Vogt said, because its more complicated components are expected to cost more. A $2,000 starting price would make the phone extremely expensive compared with Apple's current premium models. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099, meaning the foldable could cost almost twice as much.

The high price could make it harder for Apple to sell the phone to a mass audience. Vogt said the normal “halo effect” from an iPhone launch may also be weaker because customers who spend $2,000 on the phone may have less money left to buy products such as AirPods or an Apple Watch.

Samsung and Google foldables

Foldables have already been tried by several major smartphone companies. Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold in 2019, which opened vertically like a book, while Motorola introduced the Razr in 2020, which folded horizontally like a traditional flip phone, The New York Times reported.

Google also entered the foldable market. The company launched the Pixel Fold in 2023, showing that foldable phones were no longer limited to just a few smartphone makers. But consumers have not shown huge interest in foldables yet. Electronics companies shipped nearly 20 million foldable smartphones last year, but that was still less than 2% of all smartphone shipments, according to Counterpoint Research.

Apple foldable sales

Apple could quickly become a major player in the foldable market. Counterpoint expects Apple to ship more than 12 million foldable iPhones next year, which could equal about 5% of all iPhone shipments.

Foldable phones have also had a difficult start. Some of the first models were expensive and faced problems with their software and durability.

iPhone upgrade demand

The foldable iPhone will also test whether people actually want new phone features. A Consumer Intelligence Research Partners survey found that around two-thirds of people who bought an iPhone last year did so because their old phone stopped working or was broken, lost or stolen.

Only a small share of buyers purchased an iPhone mainly for new features. Just 14% of people in the survey said features were the reason they bought a new iPhone, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Foldable phone demand

That could be a problem for Apple's foldable strategy. If most people replace their phones only when their old device stops working, a new folding screen may not be enough to convince them to upgrade.

The bigger question is whether consumers will see foldability as useful or just a gimmick. Michael Levin, a partner at Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, said foldable phones have not made a major difference for other companies that sell them and warned that consumers could see Apple's version as “gimmicky” or “niche.”

Memory chip shortage

The key question for Apple is why people should pay extra to get a foldable phone. Levin said Apple needs to show consumers why foldability is the feature that makes them want to upgrade.

The phone's price could also rise because of the global memory-chip shortage. The artificial intelligence boom has increased demand for memory and storage chips, which could push up the cost of smartphones and other Apple devices.

Apple has already increased prices on some products because of higher chip costs. In June, the company raised prices for its Macs and iPads, citing the rising cost of memory and storage chips.

John Ternus Apple CEO

Apple is also trying to make expensive devices easier for consumers to afford. In July, the company introduced a leasing program that lets customers pay monthly for iPhones and other Apple products, The New York Times reported.

The foldable iPhone is also arriving at an important time for Apple. John Ternus took over as Apple's chief executive last week, and the launch will be an early test of his ability to bring fresh energy to the company's products and major product events.

Apple's innovation test

Apple's product events themselves have changed over the years. A decade ago, new iPhone launches were major live shows with large crowds and even popular music acts. In recent years, Apple's fall events have become quieter marketing presentations, with many product demonstrations shown through pre-recorded videos.

Ternus now faces pressure to bring some of the excitement back. He has taken charge of Apple after years of criticism that the company has stopped creating truly new product categories and that its products have become less exciting, The New York Times reported.

Foldable iPhone impact

Analyst Bob O'Donnell said a foldable iPhone could change that perception. O'Donnell, founder of TECHnalysis Research, said Apple has performed extremely well but has not created new product categories in recent years. He said a foldable iPhone could show “a side of Apple” that consumers have not seen for a long time.

Apple has not confirmed the foldable iPhone. The company declined to comment on the event, while several news organisations have separately reported that Apple has been working on a foldable iPhone, including Bloomberg.

The bigger opportunity for Apple is scale. Other companies have already spent years developing foldable phones, but Apple could use its huge customer base, strong brand and supply chain to bring the technology to a much larger audience.

But the $2,000 price creates a major question: can Apple turn a technology that currently represents less than 2% of the smartphone market into a mainstream product, or will the foldable iPhone remain a premium device for a relatively small group of customers?

For Apple, this is more than just another iPhone launch. The fold could show whether consumers are still excited enough by new smartphone designs to pay a huge premium — and whether Apple can once again make a product category feel mainstream.