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Big smartphone companies like Samsung and Google have already made their strong presence in the foldable phone market, while Apple has been lagging behind in this matter till now. However, now it seems that Apple has started preparing to overcome this shortcoming. Recently, famous analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has shared important information about Apple’s first foldable iPhone in an interview, in which its launch timeline and possible features have been mentioned.
According to Kuo, Apple is now making a big change in its strategy. To compensate for its late entry into the AI race, the company is now placing more emphasis on hardware innovation. The iPhone Air launched this year could not live up to the company’s expectations.
After sales were below expectations, Apple has decided to postpone the next iPhone Air and instead speed up the production of foldable iPhones.
Kuo says that even though some reports are saying that the foldable iPhone will be postponed till 2027, recent industry surveys show that Apple is still sticking to its original goal and is preparing to bring the foldable iPhone soon.
Launch timeline and production plan
Earlier, Apple was planning to launch a new iPhone Air in the second half of 2026, followed by two Pro models and a foldable iPhone. But now the situation has changed. The production target of iPhone Air has dropped from 8 million units to less than 6 million this year. For this reason, the next version of iPhone Air has been postponed till 2027.
The foldable iPhone has benefited from this change. It is now expected that Apple can introduce its first foldable iPhone in late 2026 (Fall 2026). However, Kuo has also warned that its shipment may be quite limited in the beginning, because large-scale production will start only after the launch. Even some final specifications may still be in the works.
Expected Features and Price
According to Kuo, the foldable iPhone will be a premium and luxury device. Its price can be more than $2,000 (about Rs 1.80 lakh). Talking about design, the phone can be about 9mm thick when unfolded and about 9.2mm thick when folded.
For Apple, foldable design is not just a new form factor, but the company is looking at connecting it with the future of AI. Apple believes that large displays will act as ‘AI carriers’ in the future, where multimodal AI and on-device processing can be used in a better way.
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