苹果发布首款折叠屏iPhone Duo及iPhone 18系列

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Well, Apple's annual product announcement happening today. It all got underway uh about an hour or so ago. I'm looking at our live blog. There's so much on it. Um we should point out it is the first major product announcement under new CEO John Turnis. Here's what he had to say a little bit earlier.

As we look ahead, we see a future filled with enormous discovery and transformation. AI makes entirely new kinds of experiences possible. And AI can become even more useful when it brings together your life with the apps, services, and products you use every day.

And that of course was John Turnis, the CEO of Apple earlier today, obviously from the Certino headquarters. Let's get to it. Uh a front row to it all, the host of Bloomberg Tech on Bloomberg TV, Ed Lelo. He's out there in Certino. Right here in studio is our own Mandep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence, global head of technology research. Uh, right here as I mentioned in studio. Hey Ed. So, let's get to it. We've all been kind of hyped up about this foldable phone.

Is that what it's all about or is it more about AI at Apple?

It's one more thing to to reflect on the the famous Steve Jobs phrase and it is the foldable iPhone, iPhone Duo. So, Bloomberg's reporting completely accurate on the naming. When it's folded up, it has a 5.4 in display. And when it's unfolded, it is a 7.6 in display. 50% greater than uh the iPhone Pro model that they had also unveiled today for the 18th generation. And find this so interesting. Um the common thread of all of this apart from the specifics of the foldable which we can get into is you know John Turnis basically positioning the iPhone as the main device for the AI era but the whole selling point the benefit of it is it's personal to you.

It has all of your personal data. It can sense the world around you to make the most of that and they really are positioning this as being the the frontier and and therefore the foldable a big part of that too. Mandep, let's bring you in here because I want to get your thoughts on the foldable iPhone as well and where the future of this is going because is this supposed to be a new product, you know, under a new CEO?

I don't want to call it a gimmick, but is this going to be a a side product eventually? Or is the idea here that anyone who has an iPhone now, the next time they upgrade, they're getting a foldable iPhone?

Well, I don't know given the price point. I mean, you know, when you're talking about a two grand price point, um I think it's going to be hard for people, a lot of people to upgrade. And look, I can see why they had to price it at that, uh, you know, $2,000 because all of their component prices are going up. So, uh, they don't have a choice. I mean, I think they are eating a lot of the memory cost for the older versions of their phone. and uh iPhone Pro I think increased by $100, but the memory prices probably have gone up more.

So, from that perspective, it's hard for to see a big upgrade cycle playing out. To me, this is more like a Vision Pro. Some people will buy it.

It'll be interesting, but this is not going to be a mass upgrade.

Well, I have to say Mark Gurin was so excited leading into this, and he writes on the blog, "So far, I am blown away by the new interface of the iPhone. Apple seriously nailed the user interface of the foldable foldable phone here. They knocked it out of the park here. I'm gonna bring you back in in a moment um Ed, but I mean Mandep the Apple brand is iconic and does this just kind of fold right, no pun intended, but kind of fold into what they are known for of just creating incredible products.

It is and look uh when it comes to marketing, there is no better company that knows how to market their products. So, you know, that there will be a lot of excitement and I wouldn't be surprised if you know the Apple store at Fifth Avenue has, you know, a long line uh just to get the uh new uh phone. But

to my mind, when it comes to a big upgrade cycle like we saw with iPhone 6 or one of the earlier versions,

it had to be either driven by a new feature like a big camera upgrade or something exciting and at a reasonable price point. To me, this is too high of a price point for this to drive a big upgrade cycle. But I could be off for me. The phone could be fabulous. It's just the price point is too high.

Well, maybe it's the iPhone 18, right? I think battery life is getting a major boost there. Ed, come on back in. You're there on the ground, too. Tell us about kind of the mood, the sentiment as all of this was uh unfolding.

I keep saying that. I'm sorry. I'm just feels like

you go with it. That's why we're all here, right? the the secret no more in in the foldable iPhone duo.

Um, look, well, one thing I would say is that the pricing is not yet confirmed, right? Bloomberg's reporting is that the entry level on the foldable will be $2,000 up to $3,000 when you take into account higher spec storage configurations. Um, with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, they are $100 a piece more expensive than their prior generations. And with both the foldable and with what they've have announced and confirmed with the 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple had to make a calculation on how much of the cost to eat and how much to pass on to the consumer.

And you know, I think it's really worth reminding you your the audience on business week like there will be a million a billion smartphones shipped this year of all kinds of smartphones. There will be maybe 22 to 23 million foldables and that's a small nent market but it's a market or category or segment that will grow the forecasters believe because Apple's now a part in it. They might not have been first but they're going to give momentum to that to that category.

Tell us a little bit more Ed about some of these details about the new phone. I know something that Mark German was writing about was whether or not when the phone opened up there was going to be a very obvious crease in between the the two folds. What more have we learned so far about what the design really looks like?

Well, I'm just looking at the image and it's not obvious to me. Um what uh John Turnis opened with in this one uh one more thing foldable section was that to this point foldable phones have looked like two different phones stuck together and that that you know Apple's north star or guiding light was for that not to be the case in their case and so you know basic I haven't had my hands on it yet I'm hoping to do that in the next 30 minutes or so but it looks like at least in the crease uh they've managed to fold in all the work of the different technology teams that have been working on this for almost a decade.

So, Mandep is this something though ultimately will we all will component prices come down ultimately over time or is this always going to be a more expensive product? Like I just think about when first people had their iPhone and it was such a status symbol and you'd be in a conference room and somebody would put it on the table to let everybody know they had an iPhone. But do we get to a point where this is much more affordable and and relatable or or sellable to the masses?

I mean not if you go by the memory forecasts and what we know about the DRAM market and you know how the data center companies are all looking the chip companies are all looking to lock in their uh supply and I don't think Apple has any long-term agreements. So I mean even though they are the scale player uh but I think right now the data centers and th