Apple's (AAPL.US) fall press conference is here! The debut of the new CEO Turners drew attention to the folding screen phone iPhone Duo, which starts at $2,000

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Apple (AAPL.US) will hold a new fall product launch with the theme “Surprise and Shine” (Surprise and Shine) on Wednesday EST (September 10 at 1 a.m. Beijing time). This will be Turners' first major public appearance as Apple's CEO (CEO). In addition to the core first folding screen phone, Apple is also expected to launch the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, the new Apple Watch, and upgraded AirPods at this press conference.

Turners' debut

Cook, 65, will hand over the baton to Turners after 15 years at Apple. During Cook's tenure, Apple expanded new product areas and raised annual revenue to nearly $500 billion. Under Cook's leadership, Apple's stock price has accumulated a cumulative increase of more than 2,200%, far outperforming the US stock market.

Turners, 51, has been the head of Apple's hardware business since 2021. Turners has also hosted Apple product launches before, but this will be his first time hosting a press conference as CEO. Before the product is unveiled, Wall Street, consumers, and the media will pay close attention to how he will introduce himself, and the way he presents his latest products is also worthy of attention.

With Cook “the jewel ahead,” Turners faced a lot of pressure. To be considered a successful CEO, Turners needed not only to keep Apple growing strongly, but also to expand its business into new fields. This press conference will be Turners's first opportunity to share his vision. Meanwhile, Cook will be sitting in the audience without attending the presentation at this press conference, but as chairman, he still has significant influence.

It is worth mentioning that although Apple, which Turners took over, had a market capitalization of 4.6 trillion US dollars, it faced structural challenges not encountered during the Cook era.

First, progress in artificial intelligence (AI) is seriously lagging behind. In the field of generative AI, Apple's layout is clearly lagging behind. After ChatGPT sparked the AI boom at the end of 2022, although Apple began large-scale investment, the first version of the Apple Intelligence software did not perform well. Last year, Apple made a more controversial decision — abandoning the self-developed model route and paying for Google Gemini technology as the underlying foundation for the new version of Siri, triggering strong dissatisfaction among the internal big language model team, and many core members left their jobs one after another. The new version of Siri AI will be fully launched in September, and it is still unknown whether it can reverse market reputation.

Compared to Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI actively integrating AI into consumer and enterprise products, Apple's pace is clearly more cautious and is facing increasing pressure to catch up. Turners must lead Apple to make key decisions in the field of AI — increasing R&D investment, increasing capital expenditure, and even large-scale mergers and acquisitions.

Second, there is an increase in brain drain. Hundreds of former Apple employees currently work in the OpenAI hardware department. Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets. About half of Apple's executive team is likely to leave within the next few years. To retain key talent, Turners has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional bonuses to several members of the iPhone design team and personally intervened to retain them.

Finally, supply chain changes. Apple's long-term procurement commitments are close to 57 billion US dollars, while the four largest global cloud service providers have procurement commitments of about 2 trillion US dollars. Apple's book debt of $56.2 billion will expire in a year. Meanwhile, Chinese DRAM manufacturer Changxin Storage already accounts for about 11% of global DRAM production, making it a new option available in Apple's supply chain. Bank of America analysts expect that Apple's abandonment of the net cash neutral target “may indicate that Apple will increase R&D investment, capital expenditure, and carry out larger mergers and acquisitions for some time to come.”

The first folding screen phone “iPhone Duo” starts at $2,000

Folding screen phones are still a niche product globally, accounting for only about 1.6% of global smartphone shipments in 2025. This type of phone has some drawbacks, such as short battery life and poor camera performance. The unsightly creases that can be clearly seen when the phone is unfolded is another weak point.

However, things may finally be changing. Technology and supply chains have evolved to the extent that they can improve durability, reduce creasing issues, and address other defects. This could allow folding screen phones to actually reach the mass market.

That's why Apple is in the market now. Well-known technology journalist Mark Gurman wrote on September 9 that Apple's first folding screen phone was named “iPhone Duo,” and the starting price was 2,000 US dollars. The entry-level version will come with 256GB of storage. Apple will also be offering a higher-capacity version, which can cost up to around $3,000.

It is reported that the iPhone Duo will use a short and wide design, which is ideal for watching videos. It will also be equipped with Apple's latest self-developed C2 modem and A20 Pro chip, while supporting side-by-side applications and iPad-like multitasking. The phone will have two 48 megapixel rear cameras, as well as a 12 megapixel camera for video conferencing. It will also feature a magnetic hinge system and support the Apple Pencil stylus.

The challenge is how to create a product that is attractive enough to make consumers willing to pay for its high price. The price of $2,000 is higher than similar products from Samsung Electronics and other competitors, but this price is in line with Apple's positioning target for a product using expensive components.

For Apple, this expensive device will both become a status symbol and hopefully help the company restore its reputation as an innovator. Over the past decade or so, the number of truly exciting new Apple products has gradually dwindled. Although Apple has also launched some amazing products, such as the 2016 AirPods, the 2018 redesigned iPad Pro, the 2022 Apple Watch Ultra, and the 2024 Vision Pro, this is completely different from the era when the iPhone first started — at the time, iPhone Air, iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, and the first generation were introduced one after another Apple Watch.

Another key challenge is winning the favor of Chinese consumers, and China is likely to become one of the most important markets for this device. Last year, China accounted for more than half of the world's folding screen phone shipments and sold more than 10 million units locally. In other words, China alone buys more folding screen phones than the rest of the world combined.

This makes folding screen phones particularly important for Apple. Apple is always looking for products that resonate in the Chinese market, while local rivals — Huawei in particular — are more active in designing new products.

A team of analysts at Morgan Stanley, led by Erik Woodring, recently stated in a report to investors that if Apple's first folding screen phone received a positive response from consumers, then it could make a significant contribution to revenue for the December quarter. Analysts pointed out, “We currently expect Apple to ship about 6.5 million folding screen iPhones in the December quarter, corresponding to about US$14 billion in revenue, accounting for 16% of the total iPhone revenue for the December quarter.”

The analyst further stated, “In addition to short-term financial contributions, it is worth paying attention to how Apple will take advantage of larger product forms and whether it can provide some better usage scenarios on folding screen devices, not just larger screens — and most importantly, what is the real experience of holding this device in the hand. If the consumer response is strong, we think the final size of this product category may exceed what current supply chain forecasts suggest.”

The iPhone 18 Pro series will receive a major camera upgrade

In addition to the first folding screen phone, Apple is also expected to launch the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at this press conference, while the standard iPhone 18 will be postponed until the first half of next year.

The iPhone 18 Pro series will continue to use the market-proven straight plate design. In fact, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will look almost exactly like last year's version — one of the only notable changes is swapping the popular orange color for burgundy.

However, these devices will still receive some attractive technical upgrades. The camera system will use a new lens and professional-grade software. The biggest change will be adding a mechanical aperture to at least larger models to achieve more accurate depth of field control and better low-light shooting results. The phones will also feature an A20 Pro chip, have longer battery life, and be equipped with a redesigned heat sink to help keep the device from overheating.

Another change is that the Dynamic Island opening — an interface design first added in 2022 — is now smaller and improved. It allows users to switch between the three real-time tasks on top of the iPhone at the same time. This is an upgrade from the previous one where you could only show two live events.

New Apple Watch and AirPods 5

The new Apple Watch and AirPods won't get a major cosmetic makeover, but they'll still get some important updates. For the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, Apple will launch a new color scheme and adjust the case and strap. Among them, the Apple Watch Series 12 will relaunch the ceramic case option; the Ultra 4 is Apple's highest-end Apple Watch model, and its battery life will be improved.

The focus will be on deepening the analysis of health and fitness data obtained from the watch's various sensors. Apple will launch a new Readiness app, a variant of its Vitals software to track key data obtained by device sensors, such as heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The app will include features that have previously appeared on Oura and Whoop devices, indicating that Apple is ready to compete more directly with emerging wearable fitness devices.

The health features of the new Apple Watch will be launched along with the redesigned iPhone Health app. Another Apple Watch upgrade is a feature designed to compete with a host of recent AI wearables: a privacy-focused enhancement that analyzes a user's day's activity and provides a summary of what happened that day, including conversations; the system can't display transcripts, nor does it record or store audio.

Apple originally planned to launch high-end in-ear AirPods at this event, with built-in camera sensors to analyze the surrounding environment, but the release of this product has now been postponed until next year. However, the market will still welcome a new low-end AirPods 5 model. The earphones will be available with and without a wireless charging case, and will be equipped with greatly improved active noise cancellation.

iPhone price increase

Perhaps one of the biggest concerns of Wall Street and consumers is product pricing. In June, Apple raised the prices of all Macs, iPads, and home devices due to a severe shortage of memory chips. The company decided at the time to keep the price of the iPhone unchanged. But now that situation is about to change—Apple will raise the price of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max by $100, respectively.

Considering the severity of the tight supply of memory chips, this will be a relatively moderate price increase, and it also means that Apple may bear some of the additional costs on its own. Apple has warned that gross margins will be under pressure this quarter, which shows that the company is not passing on all of its rising costs to consumers.

Earlier this year, Apple had already taken steps to mitigate the impact of price increases and announced the launch of the Apple Upgrade Program in the US. This rental plan allows users to pay a monthly fee forever and then switch their devices to new versions every year. Wireless carriers may also play a role in reducing the consumer's impact on iPhone price increases by offering strong installment plans and trade-in offers. However, considering that the iPhone has a very loyal user base, Apple still has room for further price increases (don't forget, the Mac and iPad have increased much more).