How Apple shares will fare amid iPhone 18 launch event — all eyes on stock and foldable Ultra

Apple shares in focus: Shares of Apple Inc fell 1.3% in intraday trade on 8 September, dropping to $315 per share on Nasdaq, ahead of an event where the company is poised to unveil its first foldable phone, along with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.

The introduction will also serve as a debut of sorts for CEO John Ternus, who took the job on September 1. At Wednesday's event, Apple is expected to update its premium iPhone Pro and Pro Max devices but hold off on refreshing the iPhone Air and the base and budget lines until spring 2027.

The aim is to drive interest in the real star of tomorrow's show: the folding phone. Analysts expect Apple to announce a new iPhone at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, that folds open like a passport, Reuters reported.

They said it could quickly emerge as the category leader in the nascent folding-phone market, despite an expected price of more than $2,500 and cameras and processors that may not lead the market.

"Even with a $2,500 price tag, the Apple foldable is going to fly off the shelves, especially because Apple is excellent at creating an aura of exclusivity, luxury, and scarcity," Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, told Reuters.

The device represents the biggest single design change in the nearly 20-year history of the iPhone, which accounts for roughly half of Apple's sales.

While Samsung, Google and China's Huawei have sold folding phones since 2019, analysts expect Apple to benefit from entering the market late by solving key engineering challenges, such as developing a hinge that feels sturdy over thousands of uses and minimising any crease in the screen when the device is open.

Apple began exploring foldables years ago; now its first iPhone is nearly here

Apple Inc's push into foldable phones dates back several years, long before the company is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone tomorrow.

Around 2020, then-CEO Tim Cook returned from a trip to Asia increasingly convinced that foldable phones could become an important new category in the smartphone market. During visits to China and other parts of the region, Cook saw growing numbers of consumers using foldable devices from Samsung Electronics, Huawei Technologies and other smartphone makers, Bloomberg reported.

The experience reinforced the view that Apple needed a device of its own and prompted the company to accelerate its efforts in the category. Apple's secretive core technology development teams within its hardware engineering organisation had already been studying foldable phones, displays and related components for years by then, as per the report.

In fact, Apple's work on foldable technology began well before Samsung helped put the category on the map with the launch of the Galaxy Fold in 2019, according to people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Now, years after those early efforts began, Apple is poised to bring its own foldable iPhone to market, marking what could be the company's biggest design shift in the iPhone's nearly two-decade history.

(With inputs from Reuters and Bloomberg)

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