Apple Shares Fall Following Launch of Foldable iPhone as Market Watches New CEOs Product Pricing Strategy

Apple shares fell 1.53% after unveiling its new product lineup at the company’s major annual event, including the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable smartphone. The market and investors responded somewhat quietly to both the new products and features.

This event was also the first under the leadership of John Ternus, the new CEO who took over from Tim Cook earlier this September.

Previously, Apple shares have generally trended positively following new product launches. Although the stock may dip in the short term, it usually recovers within 30 to 60 days afterward.

According to a Bank of America analyst study released last Tuesday, Apple shares have risen in the 60 days after an iPhone launch 17 times since the first iPhone debuted in 2007.

The largest increase occurred after the launch of the iPhone 11 in 2019, when Apple’s stock gained 20% within 60 days following the event.

What’s new from the “Surprise and Shine” event?

Yesterday, Apple held the “Surprise and Shine” event at the Steve Jobs Theater, marking a significant turning point as new CEO John Ternus took the stage to debut products for the first time.

• iPhone Duo: Apple’s first foldable iPhone features a large 7.6-inch main screen and a 5.4-inch outer display, supports Apple Pencil, and allows split-screen use of two apps or two windows side by side. The 2TB model is priced at an unprecedented $3,199, the highest ever for a mass-market smartphone.
• iPhone 18 series: The new iPhone models did not include a separate Pro launch this time. A new Burgundy color was introduced, featuring camera upgrades as a key selling point. Pricing starts at $1,199 for the 256GB model. The iPhone 18 Pro Max price increased by $100 compared to the iPhone 17 Pro Max with the same storage.
• Siri AI: Apple unveiled an "entirely new version" of Siri, capable of operating within over 300,000 apps including third-party ones. Beta access begins 14 Sep and is initially available only in English.
• Apple Watch Series : The new model focuses on “Health + AI + Fitness,” featuring what Apple calls the most accurate Heart Rate monitoring system in its wearables. It adds a Health Age feature in the Health app, using sleep patterns and blood composition data to assess health relative to actual age.
• AirPods 5: The new AirPods 5 introduce Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to Apple's lower-priced AirPods for the first time, improving noise reduction by about 50% over previous models. They also add hands-free Siri AI, live translation, and real-time language interpretation.

Price increases:

One of the most discussed topics is the Duo’s price, as Apple’s first foldable iPhone will test whether consumers will pay such a high amount for a smartphone.

At $3,199, the price approaches that of Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops and nearly reaches the $3,699 level of the Vision Pro headset, a product that has not met company expectations.

The complexity of engineering and rising component costs pushed the iPhone Duo’s price higher. The device features two advanced screens, requiring Apple to develop new methods to miniaturize parts. Meanwhile, a severe memory chip shortage has driven up costs across the electronics industry.

Despite this, Apple aims to keep the iPhone Duo’s base price under $2,000 to avoid deterring consumers. However, higher-capacity models priced above that threshold will help increase profit margins.

Competitors’ prices are not far behind; the iPhone Duo’s starting price is only $100 above Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Samsung’s highest-priced foldable, the Fold 8 Ultra, costs up to $2,699 but only offers up to 1TB storage, less than the iPhone Duo’s top 2TB capacity.

Apple is softening the impact of high prices by launching a new leasing program. Customers can acquire the base iPhone Duo model for $57.99 per month, while the 2TB version costs $92.81 per month.

Apple has also raised prices in some countries: the iPhone Duo starts at 2,999 Canadian dollars (approximately $2,172) and 3,499 Australian dollars (about $2,525).

For the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple increased U.S. prices by $100 per model.

Additionally, Apple raised prices by $100 on the iPhone 16, iPhone 17e, iPhone 17, and iPhone Air models, despite no hardware updates. The company discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max launched last year but has not raised prices on AirPods or Apple Watch.

Overall, this product launch marks a new era under John Ternus’s leadership, with investors evaluating whether these hardware and software updates will support Apple’s product strategy and drive future growth.

Source:Yahoo! Finance,Business Insider,Bloomberg,Tradingview

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