Apple unveils foldable iPhone - but is it worth the price tag?

Apple’s new chief executive John Ternus has hosted his first major event with milestone product announcements for the company, and all eyes are on the mix of innovation and high prices and how that will be received by consumers.

Almost like clockwork, every September, Apple invites the media to their “Apple Park” headquarters in Cupertino just south of San Francisco in California.

Every year we expect the same thing – new iPhones – and every year they get more advanced, have better cameras, and recently, can do more AI things as a priority.

This year, Ternus used his first event to break out the famous Apple event line “One More Thing” for perhaps the most significant all-new iPhone in a decade or more – the foldable iPhone Duo.

As has been the case with many, many technological advances over the years, Apple isn’t the first to produce a foldable smartphone.

Samsung has been doing it for over seven years, and their latest Galaxy Fold 8 Series just hit the shelves last month. Motorola, Google, Oppo and more are all likewise making foldables.

So how does Apple think their device is going to convert customers?

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Apple showcased a range of software use cases which showed the opened 7.6 inch screen automatically going to a split screen mode 

As good as that sounds, there’s a problem.  The price.

Apple, like all tech companies, has not been able to avoid the stark price rises of technology as AI data centres shift the demand for chipsets and memory. Plus, the iPhone Duo is years of research and development at great cost to Apple, so it was never going to be cheap.

As a result, the iPhone Duo is the single most expensive iPhone ever released – starting at $3499. Compare that to Samsung and Apple comes out looking like a very, very expensive unit at $800 more than the Samsung equivalent.

Australians buy more than 7.5 million phones per year, and a lot are already in the premium category.  Many too are paid off over two to three years of a smartphone contract, so while this is more expensive, many will argue that makes it less of a problem.

Despite the foldable market existing for years, Apple’s hype around their launch will create a whole new anticipation for foldable smartphones.

Apple’s own executives referred to the “distracting crease” in other foldable, so Apple is holding themselves to a higher account for those who will be looking at just how well they are able to flatten the foldable glass.

In another shift for the business, their entry-level smartphone has not received an upgrade. Instead only the Pro and Pro Max models were launched alongside the new iPhone Duo.

Rumours across the industry suggest that Apple will follow this event with another early in the new year for the regular iPhone 18, a replacement iPhone 18e and a second generation of the super thin iPhone Air.

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max model feature a boost in performance from the A20 Pro processor, a better battery life which Apple say is the best of any iPhone ever, improvements in the camera with a variable aperture, and more AI performance with Apple Intelligence.

Pro models will come in four colours, Black, Silver, Glacier (Blue) and Burgundy.  They go on sale September 18.

iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $2099 - $100 more than last year’s model, and the iPhone 18 pro Max starts at $2299.

The iPhone Duo goes on sale mid-October.

Trevor Long travelled to the USA as a guest of Apple