Apple is set to unveil its first foldable iPhone on Sept. 9, with price estimates now ranging from about $1,999 to $2,550 across analysts and leaked carrier listings.
Key Points:
- Carrier listings placed the foldable at 155,750 Egyptian pounds and 3,700 Australian dollars for the entry storage tier.
- IDC puts the average selling price near $2,550, while TrendForce sees a domestic start of $2,099 to $2,299.
- The standard iPhone 18 is not expected at the event and has slipped to early 2027.
iPhone Ultra Carrier Price Leaks
A Vodafone Egypt page briefly showed the foldable, tentatively called iPhone Ultra, at 155,750 Egyptian pounds before the listing came down. A separate post on X, attributed to a Vodafone Australia contact, put the 256-gigabyte model at 3,700 Australian dollars. Both figures land roughly 65% to 68% above what the iPhone 17 Pro Max costs in those two markets.
Straight currency conversion overstates the American number, because local taxes and import costs inflate retail prices in Egypt and Australia alike. Measuring each leak as a percentage jump over last year's flagship instead lands much nearer $2,000.
The same Egyptian listing priced the iPhone 18 Pro at 98,000 pounds and the Pro Max at 105,000 pounds. Those figures imply increases of about 10% and 11% over the equivalent iPhone 17 models sold through the same carrier. Applied to United States launch prices, the math points to roughly $1,210 and $1,320.
Also Read: Apple Foldable iPhone Ultra Could Add $14 Billion In Revenue, Morgan Stanley Says
TrendForce And IDC Estimates
Research firm TrendForce estimates a domestic starting price of $2,099 to $2,299 for the foldable, with the largest storage tiers passing $3,000. The firm expects Apple to hold overall increases to between 10% and 20% by absorbing part of its higher component costs, and it credits reduced display creasing as the foldable's main engineering advance over rival hardware.
IDC puts the average selling price closer to $2,550. Senior research director Nabila Popal said Apple's entry has already redirected the foldable category, which analysts still expect to supply only about 2% of global smartphone shipments this year. Longtime Apple reporter Mark Gurman has predicted a $1,999 entry price, a figure that would let marketing pitch the device as a sub-$2,000 product.
Ternus Faces First Launch
The standard iPhone 18 will not share the stage. Contract manufacturer Pegatron disclosed in August that a major customer had changed its shipment schedule, pushing the base model into the first quarter of 2027 alongside the iPhone 18e and a second-generation iPhone Air.
That split ends a pattern running back to the iPhone 4S in 2011, when standard and Pro models began arriving together every September. It also falls in John Ternus' first weeks as chief executive, after Tim Cook handed over the job on Sept. 1 and moved to executive chairman.
Ternus, who ran hardware engineering before the promotion, told employees the coming launch would be "phenomenal."
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