Morgan Stanley Deems Apple's September 9 Event 'Most Consequential in a Decade': What AAPL Stock Investors Should Know

Consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL) will be holding its annual product launch event today. As usual, rumours are rife, and speculation abounds about what the iPhone maker will unveil at its flagship event, which is focused on a new lineup of products. However, there are some significant developments to look forward to this time.

Named "Surprise and Shine", the event will be the first with new CEO John Ternus at the helm. Moreover, it has been widely reported that a new foldable iPhone, tentatively titled iPhone Ultra, will also be unveiled, along with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

Morgan Stanley Attaching Much Significance

Consequently, financial services major Morgan Stanley (MS) reckons that this will be Apple's most consequential event in a decade. While not delving much into the logistics of the event, the firm highlighted the significance of the same in an investor report, wherein it stated, “However, the event will prove to be anything but ordinary. This is because for the first time in 15 years, Tim Cook will not headline the event; instead, new CEO John Ternus will lead the company into its first major iPhone form factor change in nearly 10 years, unveiling the much-anticipated iPhone Fold (Ultra?), alongside what are likely to be the broadest and most significant, like-for-like iPhone price hikes in company history.”

Elaborating further, the firm said, "We currently forecast ~6.5M foldable iPhone shipments in the December quarter, translating to ~$14B of revenue, or 16% of total December quarter iPhone revenue. Beyond the near-term financial contribution, it will be worth watching how Apple leverages the larger form factor and whether it delivers use cases that are better on a foldable vs. simply a larger screen—and most importantly, how the device really feels in hand. If consumer reception is strong, we believe the category could ultimately become larger than current supply chain forecasts imply."

Amid the Wall Street firm's expectations, the buzz is only getting stronger as the event nears.

Getting Into The Fold

The most anticipated of all the product launches at the event will be that of the foldable iPhone. With this, Apple will be attempting a hardware design that it has never attempted before. Expected to cost between $2,100 and $3,000, the new phone is speculated to have a 5.5-inch outer OLED display, a 7.8-inch inner OLED display with ProMotion for up to a 120Hz refresh rate, a 5,500 mAh battery, an A20 Pro chip manufactured with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's (TSM) 2nm process, 12GB of RAM, and capacities of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB.

However, the competition is fierce in this space. Apart from old rival Samsung, Chinese players like Huawei and Xiaomi have also released their own foldables just ahead of Apple's event. The Xiaomi 18 Fold comes with a slim book-style foldable running on the 3nm Xring O3 AI chipset. It features a 7.58-inch inner AMOLED display and a 5.38-inch cover screen (both hitting up to 4,000 nits peak brightness), a 200MP Leica-backed triple camera, and a 6,000mAh battery with 67W wired and 50W wireless charging, priced between $1,500 and $2,000.

On the other hand, the Huawei Mate XT 2 is more comparable to the price point the to-be-launched iPhone Ultra is targeting. Priced around $2,800 to $3,500, the phone comes with a unique tri-fold design opening up to a massive 10.2-inch 3K display. Powered by the Kirin 9050 Pro processor, it features a 6,000mAh silicon-anode battery (just 1.9mm thick per panel), an adjustable physical aperture XMAGE camera system, and a Lingdun privacy screen.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8/Z Fold8 Ultra — with a price range of $1,799 to $2,300 — has already seen strong demand since its launch. Counterpoint Research reported that global pre-orders for the Z Fold8 series climbed by over 30% compared to the previous generation. In the United States specifically, combined purchases of the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra are tracking 30% ahead of the record-setting Z Fold7, with the book-style foldables making up roughly 80% of total US Z-series purchases.

Aside from the foldable iPhone, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max would also be unveiled. Both will be powered by the A20 Pro chip while maintaining 6.3-inch (Pro) and 6.9-inch (Pro Max) screen dimensions, featuring ProMotion 120Hz OLED panels and a more streamlined Dynamic Island layout. Notably, the iPhone 18 Pro is projected to start around $1,199, while the larger iPhone 18 Pro Max is expected to start around $1,299.

The base model iPhone 18, 18e, and Air versions are slated to be released next year.

The event will also see Apple possibly launching the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. Both iterations of the wearables will be equipped with updated processors built to handle continuous AI health tracking, such as all-day heart rate monitoring, alongside possible ceramic case options.

Finally, when it comes to Macs, an entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip and future high-end MacBook Pro redesigns featuring M5 Pro/Max chips and OLED touchscreens are slated for later in the year, rather than at the September 9 event. Similarly, an updated M6 iMac is expected via a later release or press release.

Apart from the product launches, a glimpse into Ternus's strategic vision for Apple will also be observed. The former VP of Hardware Engineering has been behind some of the seminal moments at Apple in the past two decades, with the most notable being his critical operational and engineering role in driving the transition of the entire Mac lineup from Intel (INTC) processors to Apple silicon.

Overall, Apple is left in a healthy state by former CEO Tim Cook for Ternus. With a market cap of $4.7 trillion, Apple is the world's second-most valuable company by market cap, and its stock is up 16.3% YTD.

Analyst Opinion

Overall, analysts have attributed “Moderate Buy” rating for AAPL stock. The mean target price of $328.70 indicates an upside potential of about 4% from current levels. Out of 41 analysts covering the stock, 21 have a “Strong Buy” rating, three have a “Moderate Buy” rating, 13 have a “Hold” rating, two have a “Moderate Sell” rating, and two have a “Strong Sell” rating.

On the date of publication, Pathikrit Bose did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.