Apple's first foldable iPhone will sell for an average of roughly $2,550, a market research forecast projects, five days before the company's Sept. 9 product launch event.
Key Points:
- IDC projects an average selling price above $2,550 for Apple's first foldable iPhone, with top storage tiers reaching $3,000.
- The firm expects more than 17 million units shipped by the end of 2027, worth over $45.7 billion.
- Foldables are the only smartphone category IDC still forecasts to grow in 2026.
iPhone Ultra Price Forecast Tops $2,500
The projection comes from IDC, the market intelligence firm behind the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, a widely cited industry data set. Its latest outlook puts the average selling price above $2,550, a level no iPhone has approached in nearly two decades of sales. That figure reflects the full mix of storage tiers, and the largest configurations could reach or exceed $3,000.
IDC estimates Apple will ship more than 17 million foldable units by the end of 2027 and pull in over $45.7 billion from a category it has never entered. That would leave the company holding roughly 40% of a global foldable market it enters this year.
Suppliers were told this summer to prepare about 10 million foldable iPhones for the year, up from an earlier target of 7 million to 8 million units, supply chain reporting indicated. Samsung set its Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra at $2,099 in the United States in July, with the top storage tier reaching $2,699. Apple has confirmed neither the device nor its name nor its price.
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Nabila Popal Reads Apple's Foldable Impact
Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, said Apple's arrival has done more than revive a category that had been losing momentum, and has instead altered its trajectory. Without Apple, she said, foldable shipments would have fallen at a double-digit rate year over year.
Foldables are now the only part of the smartphone market that IDC still expects to grow this year and next. The firm forecasts 12.6% growth in 2026, to 22.9 million units, followed by an 18% gain the year after that. Every other segment shrinks.
Popal added that Apple is positioned to challenge Huawei and Samsung in markets those rivals have controlled for years, an unusual outcome for a product barely two years into its life cycle. Both companies have sold foldable handsets since 2019, giving them a six-year head start.
Memory Crisis Reshapes Smartphone Pricing
The forecast arrives during the worst year on record for smartphone volumes, with IDC projecting a 16.7% shipment drop in 2026 to slightly more than 1 billion units.
Memory costs have climbed more than 300% from a year earlier, lifting the average smartphone price 27.6% to $581 and effectively ending the sub-$100 tier. Global shipments already fell 6.7% in the second quarter to 277.5 million units, a second consecutive decline.
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