CUPERTINO, Calif.—Nearly 20 years ago, Steve Jobs upended the consumer hardware space by introducing the world to the iPhone, propelling Apple to unprecedented heights. While few product launches can top that moment, Apple today is poised to host one of its most exciting events in recent memory when it unveils its latest hardware, which is expected to include its first foldable phone.
At the Steve Jobs theater on Apple’s campus, the company is expected to reveal the foldable, along with its iPhone 18 Pro models, Apple Watch Series 12, AirPods 5, and potential updates to its MacBook and home products. It could also unpack more details about Siri AI, its supercharged assistant—partly reliant on Google technology—that users have been testing in beta mode.
It’s also Apple’s first big event to be led by new CEO John Ternus. And with questions growing over Apple’s business momentum, its AI strategy, and challenges such as the industry’s memory chip shortage, it’s safe to say that this will be one of Apple’s most closely watched product launches in years.
The foldable in particular would vault Apple into its next age by introducing a new form factor after years in which it has iterated on its original iPhone. While the cost is expected to be around $2,000 for the base model, the phone would help Apple compete in a market set by Samsung and hand Ternus a flashy new product to tout as he begins his tenure.
Apple’s events in recent years have “been a wash, rinse, and repeat cycle,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst and former Apple marketing employee. With its event Wednesday, however, the company has something distinctly new it can present to consumers and potentially show off a different approach to foldables from the ones Samsung and Google currently make.
“Everyone, whether you’re the kid at home saving their money for a new iPhone, or an analyst on Wall Street, will pay close attention to everything that Ternus says and does,” Gartenberg told Fortune.
And while the expected $2,000-plus price of Apple’s foldable is likely to limit the potential buyers, the price will be comparable to competing products such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 phone, which starts at $1,899.99, and the upgraded Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, which begins at $2,099.99.
Apple isn’t abandoning its traditional bar type iPhone design, and its expected iPhone 18 Pro will be the latest version of its premium iPhone model. But the company’s base model, the iPhone 18, is not expected until Spring 2027, according to a note by analysts at Bank of America. That’s a change from Apple’s standard playbook. “The split launch could support mix and (average selling prices) but creates some risk that price-sensitive consumers defer upgrades until the lower-priced models arrive,” analysts wrote.
Apple, like other companies, raised prices recently due to a shortage in memory chips brought on by the intense demand for AI computing resources. The company’s price hikes ranged from 15% to 33% across its Mac, iPad, and home device lines (it also increased monthly subscriptions by $2) in what former CEO Tim Cook called a “100-year-flood” event.
In July, Apple issued a disappointing revenue forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter owing to supply-chain constraints. Investors are also examining the company’s progress on AI, with its new Siri AI being rolled out this fall that is promised to better understand data across apps, answer questions based on what is on users’ screens, and act autonomously within apps. The update has drawn praise by some analysts who have tested it. Apple has also bet that much of AI could happen locally on-device, rather than in the cloud.
Ternus, who took over on Sept. 1, told employees in a note that day that he was “so excited about everything we have in store.” He added that he’s “just as excited about what lies beyond that, including the incredible products already in the works and the ones we haven’t even imagined yet that we’ll dream up and create together.”
The 51-year-old executive is widely regarded as a low-key product-engineer savant with an encyclopedic memory of Apple product minutiae and an all-around nice guy who has played a significant part in building many of Apple’s most successful hardware products, Fortune reported in a profile this month.
He’s stepped into the role as Apple looks to compete in AI after mostly ceding the AI model ground to competitors like Google and OpenAI, which are also keen on beating out the iPhone-maker on consumer hardware devices in the AI era. OpenAI has not yet released a product but is working with former Apple star designer Jony Ive. Roughly half of Apple’s revenue is from iPhone sales.
Analysts and former Apple employees interviewed by Fortune have said they hope Ternus, given his product engineering background, can revive some of the company’s innovation and design mojo it has lost over the years. It’s likely Ternus will not make drastic changes to start out, experts pointed out, especially since hardware cycles are usually a few years in the making. But nevertheless, he could make a dent in a different way than the supply-chain minded Cook did.
Gartenberg and other analysts said Wednesday could be the start of that, as Apple promised some “surprise and shine” in its event description. That is likely to include a specialized hinge—the kind that would open a foldable device.