[New York = E-Daily Correspondent Seong Joowon ] Apple has entered the market long dominated by SamsungElectronics and Huawei by launching its first foldable smartphone priced at $1,999 (approximately 2.68 million won). Wall Street is focusing less on the product’s immediate impact on Apple’s earnings and more on its potential to serve as a catalyst for bringing the stagnant foldable phone market into the mainstream. However, the price—nearing $2,000—and the still-small market size are cited as barriers to overcome.

Apple held a new product launch event on the 9th (local time) at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, and unveiled its first foldable phone, the “iPhone Duo.” The base model is priced at $1,999. It features a 7.6-inch screen and will be released on the 23rd of next month. Apple CEO John Turners emphasized that existing foldable phones “look like two phones awkwardly stuck together,” noting that the iPhone Duo has reimagined the foldable phone user experience.

“We’re late to the party, but we’re setting the rules”… Projected 40% market share next year

Market experts are focusing less on the new form factor itself and more on the ripple effect Apple’s entry will have on the market. Foldable phones have been commercially available for several years— SamsungElectronics(005930), for example, launched the Galaxy Fold in 2019—but they have yet to establish themselves in the mainstream market. Shipments of foldable phones in the first half of this year fell 15% compared to the same period last year. Last year, global shipments of foldable phones totaled approximately 20 million units, accounting for less than 2% of all smartphones.
Experts believe Apple could change this trend. Market research firm IDC forecasts that Apple will capture a 40% market share by the end of next year, as most of the foldable iPhones it produces are sold.
Francisco Jeronimo, Vice President of IDC EMEA, commented, “Apple entered the market a few years later than other companies, but as soon as it arrived, it set the rules,” adding, “With a single keynote, it established the price and standards against which all future competitors will be evaluated.”
Given that these are high-end products, their impact on revenue is expected to be even greater. IDC projected that the iPhone duo will account for 44% of global foldable phone sales revenue this year, despite having only about three months left in the sales cycle.
The Chinese market, in particular, is seen as a key battleground. Vice President Jeronimo noted that Huawei controls about 80% of the Chinese foldable phone market, adding, “Apple has provided Chinese consumers with their first serious reason to switch their allegiance.” SamsungElectronics is also expected to face even fiercer competition in the foldable market regarding pricing and user experience following Apple’s entry.

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“bold gamble” at $1,999… with the highest-priced model at $3,199

The key issue is price. While the base model of the iPhone Duo costs $1,999, the 2-terabyte (TB) storage model reaches $3,199. This is among the highest prices in the industry for a mainstream smartphone. The top-of-the-line model is priced similarly to Apple’s MacBook Pro and is close to the $3,699 Vision Pro.
However, some analysts note that the base model’s price is lower than the market had feared. Liz Lee, Deputy Director at Counterpoint, commented on the $1,999 price point, saying, “Even if it means sacrificing some margin, this is a bold move for Apple.” She predicted that if supply falls short of expectations, pent-up demand among early adopters could surge.
It appears Apple has adopted a strategy of keeping the base model price below the psychological threshold of $2,000 while offsetting profitability through higher-capacity models. The base models of the iPhone Duo are priced $100 higher than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
The recent surge in memory prices is also putting pressure on Apple’s pricing strategy. Apple raised the prices of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max by $100 each, setting them at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively. Some analysts suggest that since the price increase was smaller than market expectations, Apple may be willing to absorb some of the margin pressure.

Will This Be a Growth Driver for Apple? Stock Price Down 0.3%

However, the foldable phone market is not yet large enough to immediately alter Apple’s overall growth trajectory. Counterpoint forecasts that Apple’s foldable phone shipments will exceed 12 million units next year but predicts they will account for only about 5% of total iPhone shipments.
Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management, described the iPhone duo as “part of an experiment” to continue growing the iPhone business. The iPhone accounts for more than $200 billion—half of Apple’s annual revenue. Ultimately, from an investor’s perspective, what matters more than foldable phone sales volume itself is how much they can generate new replacement demand and boost the iPhone business’s growth rate and average selling price.
The stock market also reacted cautiously at first. Apple’s stock price closed at $315.34, down 0.3% for the day. CNBC noted that Apple’s stock price trended lower for most of the approximately 80-minute product launch event, assessing that the iPhone duo and new artificial intelligence (AI) features failed to make an immediate impression on the market. However, given that the entire New York stock market declined that day due to rising oil prices and Treasury yields, it is difficult to conclude that the new products were negatively received based solely on stock price movements.
Apple’s latest strategic move goes beyond simply adding a “foldable iPhone.” The company positioned the iPhone as a “personal AI hub” centered on privacy and emphasized an on-device strategy that runs AI directly on the device itself.
The key question going forward is whether loyal iPhone users will be willing to open their wallets for a device priced at nearly $2,000. There is speculation that if the iPhone duo proves successful, it could serve as a catalyst for the foldable phone market—which has remained a niche segment for years—to leap into the mainstream.