Apple should unveil its first foldable iPhone on September 9, a test for John Ternus

Seven years after Samsung, Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone this Wednesday, September 9, a high-end smartphone which will mark the baptism of fire of its new boss John Ternus, while the shortage of memory chips is driving up the prices of all devices. The event, scheduled for 10 a.m. (7 p.m. in Paris) at its headquarters in Cupertino (California), constitutes a test for Apple, which has not imposed a flagship product since the AirPods ten years ago.

John Ternus, an in-house engineer trained in product development, promised a “phenomenal” launch, sending his first message to employees on September 1, the day he took office after 15 years of reign of Tim Cook, the architect of Apple's supply chain. The American group, lagging behind in artificial intelligence (AI), must also demonstrate the integration, in its new devices, of its Siri assistant, remodeled using technology from its rival Google and planned for the fall.

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A smartphone for more than 2000 dollars?

In addition to the annual updates of the iPhone, Apple Watches and AirPods headphones, it must present the brand's first smartphone unfolding on a large screen, at a price which would exceed $2,000 according to the Bloomberg agency. John Ternus enters the fray at a time when the shortage of memory chips, caused by the rise of AI, is making all electronic devices more expensive. At the end of June, Apple raised the prices of its Macs, iPads and accessories from $30 to $300, sparing for the time being the iPhone, its primary source of revenue.

At the end of July, CFO Kevan Parekh warned that supply constraints would “increase significantly” and eventually affect the iPhone. According to forecasts from IDC, the average price of a smartphone will jump 27.6% this year, to $581, while global deliveries will fall 16.7%, a record drop.

Niche and high-end market

In this declining market, foldables are the only category expected to grow, thanks precisely to the arrival of Apple, notes IDC. Seven years after Samsung's first Galaxy Fold, this range remains a niche - less than 2% of global sales - but the American group should sell almost a third of the 23 million units expected this year, despite its late launch, according to Kiranjeet Kaur, research director of the firm. “Apple's foldable iPhone will very likely change competitive dynamics, both in China and in global markets,” said the analyst.

Chinese competitors have taken the lead: Huawei presented its three-fold Mate The price weighs less on this segment, according to Kiranjeet Kaur: “Many buyers of high-end smartphones go through an operator or a financing plan”, and the impact “is less for them” than for the buyer of an entry-level model which went from 100 to 200 dollars in a few months.

The rest of the Apple products expected on Wednesday lean towards the high end: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, according to Bloomberg, which mentions a postponement to the spring of the release of the basic iPhone 18, a first.

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No massive investments in AI

On the AI side, Apple has in recent months been rewarded by Wall Street for having resisted massive investments by its rivals in data centers, preferring to back the new Siri, presented in June and expected in the fall, with an in-house adaptation of Google's Gemini models, two years after the failure of a first internal attempt. It will be limited to English-language devices and unavailable in China, as well as on iPhones and iPads in the European Union.

Apple, which briefly overtook Nvidia as the world's largest capitalization in July, posted a record quarter in the same month, while warning that the shortage of components would hamper its growth until the end of the year.