Folding iPhone on track to launch next year with wild $2,399 price tag, reports claim

Macworld

The evidence is mounting, and it looks more and more like 2026 will see the launch of the very first foldable iPhone. Supply-chain sources report that Apple is gearing up for mass production of the device, which they say has moved past the (successful) experimental stage.

The Chinese-language site UDN this week published an article claiming that Apple has solved what it describes as “the crease problem.” This development puts the company in a position not merely to release the so-called iPhone Fold next year, but to market it as the first product to offer a seamless display when unfolded.

“Supply chain sources indicate that Apple has made a breakthrough in developing a foldable iPhone, solving the crease problem that has been the most criticized aspect of previous non-Apple foldable phones,” the site reports (via Google Translate). “Becoming the first truly crease-free foldable phone on the market [will add] a selling point for the new foldable iPhone to be launched next year.”

The report doesn’t get into the details of how Apple has solved a problem which has thus far defeated companies with far greater experience in the foldables market, such as Samsung–although it should be noted that the latter company has succeeded in making its creases less noticeable in recent handsets such as the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Indeed, those achievements may be relevant here, with previous reports pointing to a collaboration with Samsung as being key to Apple’s strategy.

Sure enough, UDN notes in passing that the Korean firm has secured the exclusive contract to supply the inner screen for the iPhone Fold. Why it wouldn’t also use those screens on its own foldables and steal Apple’s claim to have the only crease-free product on the market is more of a mystery, although Cupertino’s LiquidMetal hinge, which Samsung does not have access to, may be part of the equation.

Samsung may be making the screens, but the big winner, in UDN’s words, is Foxconn. Apple’s long-term assembly partner has “established a dedicated production line for foldable iPhones,” the site claims, citing this as proof that the product has entered the engineering verification and pre-mass production phase. Plenty of things can still go wrong, of course, so the 2026 launch schedule remains uncertain, but Apple’s commitment is clear at this point.

A sky-high price

Elsewhere, a separate report this week has given us a stronger idea of the price to expect when the iPhone Fold makes its debut. The analyst Arthur Liao, of Fubon Research, predicts it will cost $2,399, which falls at the upper end of what pundits had previously suggested.

Liao cites Apple’s high-margin business model and material costs, particularly the panel and hinge, for his lofty prediction. And while that price will clearly present a challenge for Apple’s marketing team, the report was optimistic about sales, forecasting that 5.4 million iPhone Fold units would be sold in 2026.

Assuming the iPhone Fold arrives at Apple’s fall event and the $2,399 price prediction is accurate, that’s just under $13 billion in revenue from a single iPhone model in a single quarter, which isn’t bad at all. In the same quarter in 2024, Apple made a slightly disappointing $69B across all iPhone models. With the same numbers, the iPhone Fold would represent a 20 percent boost in sales.

It looks, then, as though there’s less than a year to go until we see the first folding iPhone. For all the latest news and rumors, bookmark our regularly updated foldable iPhone superguide.