Apple event live: iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro & watches announced - finance.yahoo.com
When unfolded, Apple says the Duo is its thinnest iPhone yet. Apple (AAPL) debuted its first-ever foldable iPhone on Wednesday. Apple announced its iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max.
Apple (AAPL) unveiled its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, and a slew of product updates at its annual fall event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters today. Newly minted CEO John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1, hosted the keynote.
Duo features a passport-like design that opens and closes like a book. Up front, the device sports a 5.4-inch display. Open the phone to reveal a massive 7.6-inch display that's ideal for watching movies, playing games, doing work, and multitasking.
When unfolded, Apple says the Duo is its thinnest iPhone yet. Pricing starts at $1,999.
The company also unveiled its iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. The phones have a similar look and feel to last year's 17 Pro and Pro Max, but get faster A20 Pro processors with improved CPUs, GPUs, and neural engine upgrades for running everything from games to AI models.
The batteries are also updated, with the 18 Pro getting 24 hours of charge and the iPhone 18 Pro Max getting 30 hours.
They also come with a variable mechanical aperture for better control of light and depth.
Apple also showed off its latest Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, as well as AirPods 5.
Creative Strategies CEO and principal analyst Ben Bajarin expects demand for Apple's new iPhone Duo will be "very high" once consumers get their hands on the new tech.
"We think they're going to sell all they can make," Bajarin said. "I do think there will be a huge swing of demand for iPhone Duo. I think the software here is one of those things that really shines with Apple's vertical integration. Yes, the hardware is good, there are good other foldable hardwares, but I think the software really is where they differentiated this with the animations."
Bajarin noted that at a roughly $2,000 price point, the iPhone Duo is expensive, "but not as expensive as rumored."
At that level, Bajarin predicts Apple will be able to grab 20% to 25% of the foldable smartphone market with its new offering.
That's nowhere near the scale of the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro, but still a "good chunk of the market," he noted.
Apple's first foldable is here. The iPhone Duo marks the biggest redesign of the company's most important products and one of its most ambitious devices to date.
It's also pretty fun to use. I got to try out the Duo for a few fleeting moments following Apple's keynote at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and was surprised to see how smoothly the whole package came together.
Thanks to its passport-like design, the book-style foldable sat nicely in my hand when closed. The 5.6-inch front display is as clear and crisp as you'd expect from an iPhone.
Unfolding the Duo is satisfyingly easy. While it closes tightly, there's a slight assist when you open it up. The main 7.6-inch screen has a nano-texture finish that gives it a matte look, which Apple says helps reduce glare.
Apple (AAPL) debuted its first-ever foldable iPhone on Wednesday. The iPhone Duo sports a super-sized 7.6-inch display that folds open like a book.
It was big news for devotees of the brand and new CEO John Ternus, who was chairing his first product event at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters.
"It's called the iPhone WHAT???" the language-learning app Duolingo posted on X, followed by a string of increasingly panicked posts that had the internet chuckling.
Duolingo's social team ultimately found a positive spin: "now there's extra screen space for you to do your lesson 😍"
IDC's Francisco Jeromino weighed in on Apple's new foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, as well as multiple product updates at its annual fall event in Cupertino, Calif.
"Each new product adds meaningful improvements, but the iPhone Duo is the event's strategic flagship and a direct test of whether Apple can use design, ecosystem integration, and premium positioning to reshape a segment that has so far remained selective.
The most consequential signal, though, was pricing. Apple has widened access to its ecosystem at the bottom of the range and opened a new super-premium tier at the top, a two-directional move that few competitors could attempt in a single keynote.
This was supposed to be the cycle where prices ran away from buyers. Memory costs have spiked, and the new Apple products were expected to reflect that component price increase.
Apple did close to the opposite of what the cost curve implied. The iPhone 18 Pro arrives at $1,199 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 above the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. The new AirPods 5 bring active noise cancellation down to a $129 entry point, below the $179 that the noise-canceling AirPods 4 carried in 2024. And the foldable, comfortably Apple's most expensive iPhone ever, starts near $1,999, level with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 at $1,899, under the Z Fold 8 Ultra at around $2,099."
AT&T CEO John Stankey weighed in on Apple's new Duo foldable iPhone on Wednesday, saying that the wireless carrier will have to wait and see whether it moves the needle for Apple fans and consumers.
"The best characterization I can give is, looking at the foldable phones that have been out in the market, this is not new," Stankey told Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi from the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference.
Stankey reminded Apple fans that Android has already had foldable phones available for purchase.
"Android users are as passionate about Android as iOS users are about iOS," Stankey said. "[They're a] smaller percentage of the US market, but they are still passionate, and there's been some really good foldable devices in the Android ecosystem for a couple years. And what we've seen is that it tends to function more as a specific niche type application as opposed to it's broadly accepted."
Still, there will be a market for Apple's latest device, particularly among those die-hard Apple fans.
"Will iOS users view it differently or will there be some unique take that Apple comes up with that changes that penetration dynamic a little bit?" he said. "I suppose it's possible, but my guess right now is we're going to kind of see it contained to a portion of the user base that wants that larger device and is maybe willing to invest more money to pick it up and get it."
People have been clamoring for innovation from Apple for years — often just keeping their good-enough phones for longer as they wait," Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban writes. What happens when they finally get it?
The stock market's reaction will issue the iPhone Duo its first report card. Apple stock has often been caught in a modest sell-the-news situation immediately following launch events. But according to new analysis from Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan, the stock tends to recover in the subsequent 30 to 60 days.
More meaningful will be the coming sales figures and broader response, which will be the most important numbers for Apple in some time.
They will serve as a barometer for the company's standing and answer the deeper question of whether the iPhone maker, singularly capable of redefining product categories, still has its mojo — and can push through both an inflation crisis and chip supply challenges that have goosed its prices hundreds of dollars, no less.
Importantly, Apple doesn't have to sell a ton of its new iPhone Duos for it to be a success. The average selling price of foldables is higher than that of standard phones, and the margins can be bigger too. So even if Apple sells fewer units than a typical iPhone cycle, it'll still make Ternus and crew a lot of money on that key iPhone revenue line, likely coming just before Halloween. Boo! Investors could be in for a spooky surprise.
The market reaction to the Apple event has been lukewarm so far — shares of the iPhone maker dipped 1% in Wednesday afternoon trading.
That's not uncommon for Apple iPhone launch events, historically.
As Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi reported earlier, shares of the tech giant have often exhibited a modest sell-the-news reaction immediately following launch events.
But the real test will be in the next 60 days. Patient Apple investors are usually rewarded one to two months later. Apple stock has rebounded and gone on to make new gains in the 60 days following an iPhone reveal day most of the time, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote in a note ahead of the event.
Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Duo will start at $1,999, right where it was rumored to be priced.
It's going to be a pricey device, but will certainly generate interest from dedicated customers.
Apple (AAPL) debuted its first foldable iPhone on Wednesday, marking the largest overhaul of its smartphone design ever and creating a new revenue opportunity for the tech giant. Called the iPhone Duo, the device features a passport-like design that opens and closes like a book. Up front, the Duo sports a 5.4-inch display. Open the phone to reveal a massive 7.6-inch display that's ideal for watching movies, playing games, doing work, and multitasking. Changing the phone's orientation automatically adjusts how apps appear, so if you fold it in half while watching a video, the top half will show the content, and the lower half will show the controls. In Zoom, the top portion of the screen will show a shared view of your call, while the bottom will show the call's participants.
Each of Apple's latest iPhones gets the company's improved Apple Intelligence software and an upgraded version of Siri called Siri AI. During a video demo, Apple showed how you can ask Siri AI questions about topics from your texts and emails, use the iPhone's camera to view the world around you, and access broad world knowledge. You can also ask Siri to do things like draft emails via voice and text. It includes what Apple calls expressive voices.
Apple (AAPL) on Wednesday debuted its Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Both watches get improved heart rate-tracking sensors that take heart rate readings every 5 seconds and track heart rate variability. The company said it tested the new tracking sensor against competing trackers and a chest strap, and found it to be the most accurate. Apple is also announcing a new readiness feature in the Vitals app, similar to those seen in products from Oura and Fitbit. The feature, the company says, analyses your recent activity, vitals, and sleep to provide you with a daily score that indicates whether you should rest, pace yourself, or work out as usual. A new longevity tab can tell you how well you're performing across a variety of categories, including sleep, movement, heart health, and more, compared to clinical guidance.
The watches also get new sound recognition features that can identify things like sirens, a baby crying, alarms, doorbells, and more, and alert you if it hears them and you don't. A new Live Rewind feature can transcribe anything someone said around you in the last 15 seconds, allowing you to save the transcript to your notes, as well. There's also a new feature called Siri Recaps that can provide high-level notes of what people said over the course of the day. The company, however, says that there are no actual audio recordings and that the raw audio used for processing is inaccessible to anyone, including Apple. The company also says that it doesn't attribute anything to speakers.
Apple revealed its latest AirPods. The AirPods 5 get a new acoustic architecture that the company says improves overall sound and advanced noise cancellation, which Apple says is now 50% better than the AirPods 4. The AirPods 5 also get Siri AI via a connected iPhone. You can ask the assistant questions you'd normally ask your iPhone and get answers right away. There's also real-time translation that can quickly translate what someone is saying to you. Battery life is rated for 4 hours with active noise cancellation (ANC) turned on. The earbuds cost $129. A higher-end version of the AirPods 5 gets on tip volume controls, an additional hour of battery life with ANC, and a wireless charging case will cost $149.
The 18 Pro will start at $1,199, while the 18 Pro Max will cost $1,299. That's a $100 increase from the $1,099 for the 17 Pro and $1,199 for the 17 Pro Max with 256GB of storage.
Apple announced its iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. The phones have a similar look and feel as last year's 17 Pro and Pro Max, but get faster A20 Pro processors with improved CPUs, GPUs, and neural engine upgrades for running everything from games to AI models. The batteries are also updated with the 18 Pro getting 24 hours of charge, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max getting 30 hours.
Both of Apple's latest iPhones also get the company's improved Apple Intelligence software and an upgraded version of Siri called Siri AI. During a video demo, Apple showed how you can ask Siri AI questions about topics from your texts and emails, use the iPhone's camera to view the world around you, and access broad world knowledge. You can also ask Siri to do things like draft emails via voice and text, and adjust its voice via what Apple calls expressive voices. Apple Intelligence also lives across the iPhone's apps, including Safari, in which it can monitor web pages for changes and update you when they come through. Apple Intelligence will be in 16 languages, and Siri AI will launch in English this month with support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish coming in October.
They also come with a variable, mechanical aperture for better light and depth control.
It's a stampede down the stairs to the Steve Jobs Theater.
Apple's annual iPhone launch event today will come with several firsts, Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban and Ethan Wolff-Mann pointed out in today's Morning Brief newsletter. They write:
The stakes are higher and more urgent than the anticipated hardware debuts.
Wall Street and the public alike are still waiting for Apple to unveil more of its AI strategy and get a more concrete understanding of how an upgraded Siri will turbocharge the iPhone experience.
And on the question of AI development, how will Ternus expand Apple's famous "walled garden" to include AI agents and an ecosystem of AI tools that has largely grown outside of Cupertino's purview?
There are device unveilings, the AI and innovation questions, and then curiosity and anticipation around the man himself.
If Tim Cook was a skilled diplomat and supply chain wizard, how might Ternus differentiate himself and answer the years-long criticism of a rudderless, aura-deficient Apple?
The keynote won't reveal everything. But first impressions, especially for a company so heavily reliant on its brand, will set the tone. Ternus can show off a nifty, foldable phone and a smarter Siri. But most of all, he'll have to tell an eager audience what happens next.
The foldable smartphone segment makes up a small slice of the broader market. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) analyst Francisco Jeronimo, foldables will account for 2.2% of global units in 2026, rising to just 3.1% by 2030.
But the category's higher average selling price (ASP) means they make up a larger revenue share of 6.9% in 2026 and 10% in 2030.
In other words, Apple (AAPL) won't have to sell as many foldables as its standard phones if it launches with its anticipated $2,000 price tag.
Still, the company has some serious competition in the form of Samsung and Google here in the US, and Huawei in China. Jeronimo notes that the Huawei in particular will prove troublesome for Apple, as it accounted for 79.4% of foldable units in China and 82.2% of foldable revenue in Q2 this year.
But he says Apple could steal the value lead from Huawei as long as the foldable is a success.
Members of the media, influencers, and Apple executives are filling into the Steve Jobs Theater here at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., for the company's annual event, at which it's expected to launch its first foldable phone.
Apple's (AAPL) iPhone is the company's biggest money maker by a long shot.
In 2025, the segment accounted for $209.5 billion of Apple's $416.1 billion in total revenue. It's second largest business, its Services segment, generated $109.1 billion.
That makes any changes to the phone, like the expected foldable iPhone, a major challenge for Apple.
If it's a success out of the gate, the foldable will be a massive win for the company after years of commentary that it hasn't done enough to evolve its flagship smartphone.
But a slip-up could prove to be a serious headwind for Apple. After all, first impressions are everything in the consumer tech space. And any disruption to the company's most important product would be especially troublesome for both Apple and investors.
With gas prices back on the rise, there is some chatter on the Street about whether people will be willing to spend a rumored $2,000 on a new Apple (AAPL) iPhone that folds like a passport.
The data shows, however, that consumers continue to shop for ever more expensive iPhones, no matter if filling up the tank is costlier or economic uncertainty is the theme of the day.
JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in a new note that there is a limited relationship between price and volume on the iPhone over a multiyear period. iPhone units increased about 10% between fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2026 despite a roughly 50% increase in average selling prices and a smartphone market that peaked around 2016-17.
The mix — what consumers are buying from Apple's iPhone lineup — has also shifted toward premium devices, with the Pro and Pro Max increasing from about 37% of shipments in 2020 to roughly 65% in 2025