Apple (AAPL) held its "Surprise and Shine" product launch event, showing new phones, AirPods, and watches.
iPhone Duo - Apple's First Foldable
The standout is the new iPhone Duo, Apple's (AAPL) first serious foldable. Many expected the name "iPhone Ultra," but it launched as "Duo." It is a 5.4 inch phone that unfolds into a device shaped like an iPad mini. Foldable phones have existed for about seven years across other makers, and this is the first time Apple built its own. It marks a whole new product category for the company.
The price is $1,999. It starts at 256 gigabytes and goes up to two terabytes of storage. Pre-orders begin on the 16th, with availability on October 23rd. This lines up with premium folds from Samsung and Google. Apple has always sold at the premium end, so this lets it earn more from its wealthiest customers, which fits a solid business strategy given Apple's strong market share and rising prices across most products.
Apple's main edge is its ecosystem. All its products work together, and the Duo acts as a "halo" product. The company called the iPhone your "intelligent personal hub," and sees the Duo as the peak version of that idea, since it joins the usual iPhone with the content-viewing use of an iPad mini. You can use the Apple Pencil with it once it opens.
The A20 Pro Chip
The A20 Pro chip powers the iPhone Duo. It is a real step up from the A19 Pro that powered last year's iPhone 17 Pro. It adds extra neural cores plus extra efficiency and performance cores, and a vapor chamber for better cooling. It is built to run AI, which Apple leaned into heavily. Most people do not inspect the chips in their phones, but they care about performance and battery life, and it remains to be seen whether they care about AI. The Duo is eSIM only worldwide.
iPhone 18 Pro and the Missing Models
Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, both running the A20 Pro. It gave no sign of a standard iPhone 18. There was no reference to it at all. Buyers wanting an entry-level iPhone - with a 60 Hz screen instead of the higher-refresh "ProMotion" display, a simpler camera, and a lower price - are out of luck for now. The iPhone Air also got no update.
Prices rose. The smaller iPhone Pro is $1,200, up from $1,100. The Pro Max comes in at $1,299 and is available September 18th, sooner than the Duo. By splitting the launch cycle, Apple is frontloading its more expensive models. A midcycle release for an Air 2 or iPhone 18 may come in a few months, or Apple may skip it, though skipping seems unlikely.
AirPods 5 and Wearables
The AirPods 5 have noise cancellation that is 50% better. The regular AirPods lack the rubber tip found on the AirPods Pro, and that tip improves the seal and the noise cancellation. For the non-pro model, the draw is price. The AirPods 5 price stayed the same or dropped versus the AirPods 4, coming in below $150. Apple stressed the value. For many Apple customers, upgrading is an easy call if performance jumps that much. The wearables - the watch and AirPods - were the less exciting part of the event compared with the phones, especially the Duo.
The wearables tie into AI too. You can talk to Siri hands-free and get translation features.
Leadership: John Ternus Takes Over
John Ternus is leading this launch. He has a product-focused mind and has been on that side of the company for a long time as VP of hardware. Tim Cook had about a 15 year run and took Apple (AAPL) from a $300 billion market cap to over three trillion, leaving very large shoes to fill.
To predict where a leader goes, look at where they have been. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO before Cook, was a design person. Cook was an operator who built Apple's supply chain into one of the most impressive in the world. Ternus is a product person brought in to reinvigorate Apple's products. When Apple enters a space, it can transform or even create it.
Market Size and Outlook
Foldables are a very small share of phones shipped - roughly 20 million a year across all makers, in the tens of millions. Apple sells about 250 million iPhones a year, so even a small share going to foldable Duos would be significant. Apple's other categories are category-defining: the iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods, with AirPods alone nearly a $20 billion a year business depending on the analyst. Apple needs a few more product wins like that, and it will keep getting them if Ternus meets expectations.
Is this an "X moment" for Apple, like the iPhone X? Going back to 2017, the iPhone 10 was a fundamental change - it dropped the home button and set a design that carried through the past nine years. The iPhone Duo is arguably the biggest change to the iPhone since the iPhone 10. It is a turning point.
On price, this is not the absolute peak. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra launched at $2,100, above the Duo's $2,000. Given Apple's phone volume, premium buyers, and US market share, the Duo could move significant numbers. People are now used to financing devices, which may soften the sticker shock by spreading the $2,000 over time. Apple announced a leasing program called Apple Upgrade to spread the cost.
For enthusiasts who value AI, the vapor chamber cooling, and the triple camera setup, the Pro and Pro Max will appeal even as incremental updates. For those waiting for a foldable, the Duo will be big - likely the best-selling foldable over the next year, or close to it. The iPhone 17 sold very well, with growing demand reported in China.
Competition
The competitive field includes Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei, all with foldable phones. The Duo may be viewed as a luxury item. You can now pair your phone number across devices, so some users might carry two phones - a foldable for going out and a Pro Max for daytime.
After the event, Apple (AAPL) stock had come off its session lows and was down about 1.2%.
