Apple’s First Foldable, the iPhone Ultra, May Become the Holiday Season’s Hardest Find

Recent checks on Apple’s supply chain point to a launch strategy heavy on anticipation and light on immediate stock. The company appears ready to show its first foldable handset, the rumored iPhone Ultra, in September, yet early buyers could face weeks or months of waiting lists and marked-up resale prices. This setup recalls past launches where demand ran far ahead of what factories could deliver right away.

Ming-Chi Kuo released survey results this week that have sparked speculation, estimating assembly volumes for the second half of 2026 to be between 7 and 8 million units, a far cry from the 20 to 22 million expected for the basic iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models during the same time period. Only a tiny portion of that, about 10%, will actually be assembled in the third quarter, which equates to 0.5 to 1 million units if you do the math. Meanwhile, the gap between announcement and availability is expected to be longer than normal. Pre-orders may not be available until later in the fall, and first deliveries will most likely be delayed until the fourth quarter. To make matters worse, supply is expected to be tight for an extended period of time.

What’s really gotten people talking is the price, with Kuo and others estimating a starting price of between $2,300 and $2,500 for the most costly iPhone Apple has in the works. If those prices hold, we may expect to see some major resale pricing, perhaps 50-100% more than the retail price by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the design is finally starting to take shape, and what a design it is. It has a book-style fold that opens horizontally, similar to several other Samsung and Google devices. When closed, it has a 5.5-inch cover display, and when fully opened, it shows a 7.7- or 7.8-inch inner screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio similar to an iPad mini rather than a typical smartphone. When unfolded, it is around 4.5 to 4.8 mm thick; when closed, it increases to 9 to 9.5 mm.

Apple is also leveraging advanced technology to make this happen. They’ve got titanium on board for the critical bits to keep it all nice and rigid, while the rest of the build is made of aluminum for weight and heat control, and don’t forget about the liquid-metal hinge technology, which is designed to keep the wrinkles almost unnoticeable and withstand all of the folding and unfolding you can throw at it. The early CAD-based drawings and leaked photographs reveal a super compact, wide stance that will set it apart from the other foldables on the market right now. The word is that Apple may even limit themselves to only one color option to begin with.

Under the hood, you can expect an A20-series CPU, a seriously huge battery (between 5,400 and 5,800 mAh), and storage tiers ranging from 256 GB to 1 TB. The camera has two 48-megapixel lenses on the back, but no telephoto module. If you’re a software enthusiast, you’ll be pleased to learn that the latest iOS betas already hint at support for split-view multitasking and larger-screen layouts whenever the device is released.

The reason for these conservative volume targets is really simple: Apple and the manufacturers are still figuring things out. Hinge designs, folding displays, and all that stuff are extremely difficult to get right, and it takes time. Kuo has even stated that he believes supply would be tight until at least December, and that it may not improve much until 2027.
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