Apple Teases New Products, Including Foldable iPhone, for Sept. 9

[Financial News] Apple Inc.'s new products, including the foldable iPhone, are set to be unveiled on Sept. 9, local time.
Greg Joswiak, Apple Inc.'s senior vice president of marketing, announced on the company website on the 26th that Apple Inc.'s product launch event will be held on Sept. 9 next month. This will be the first event attended by John Ternus, who is set to lead Apple Inc. after Tim Cook steps down as CEO at the end of this month. In invitations sent to major media outlets, Apple Inc. included the phrase, "Surprise and shine," but did not specify what products would be unveiled.
Market analysts speculated that Apple Inc. will unveil its first foldable iPhone, along with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, at the event. Ternus, who has long overseen Apple Inc.'s hardware division, is said to have personally led development of the foldable iPhone. The second-generation iPhone Air, expected to launch next spring, and the standard iPhone 18 are unlikely to be introduced at this event.
In a report released on the 26th, U.S. market research firm IDC projected that Apple Inc. will sell more than 10 million foldable iPhones in the first year alone, with sales reaching 17 million units by next year.
IDC also forecast that, unlike last year when Android accounted for 88% of the foldable smartphone market and Huawei's HarmonyOS for 12%, Apple Inc. will enter the market with a 31% share this year and capture 40% of the overall market next year.
Nabila Popal, IDC's senior research director, said, "Apple's entry into the foldable smartphone market fundamentally changes the market's trajectory." She added, "Without Apple, foldable device shipments would have posted a double-digit year-on-year decline."
Meanwhile, IDC expects total global smartphone shipments to fall 16.7% this year amid a sharp rise in memory chip prices, while the average selling price, or ASP, will rise 27.6% from a year earlier to $581. Apple Inc. had previously raised prices on major product lines such as the iPad and Mac computers due to higher component costs, while leaving iPhone prices unchanged. Analysts expect Apple Inc. to raise iPhone prices as well at this launch.


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