A new report suggests Apple is being extremely cautious in its expectations of demand for its most expensive ever smartphone, the iPhone Fold (or iPhone Ultra). The company is said to have told manufacturing partners to plan for significantly lower orders than initially expected.
The report also says that Samsung has taken advantage of its technological lead in advanced folding displays to win a major concession from Apple …
Initial shipment expectations have been cut
The Elec reports that Apple had initially expected to sell around 10 million units during the launch phase, but its manufacturing partners have now been told to expect to produce around 3 million.
The piece suggests that Apple has learned from the Vision Pro experience, and accepts that there may be a similar market response to an extremely pricey folding iPhone, with only very early adopters willing to buy the first model.
It’s been estimated that the iPhone Ultra will have a starting price somewhere in the $2,000 to $2,400 range.
Samsung folding display for the iPhone Ultra
The reason it’s taken Apple eight years to launch its first folding phone was reportedly that it was unhappy with both the fragility of existing folding screens as well as the visibility of the crease. It wanted both of these problems to be solved before it launched the first folding iPhone.
Apple usually prefers to have multiple suppliers for key components with display orders typically split between Samsung, LG and China’s BOE. However, it’s been reported that only Samsung was able to meet Apple’s quality requirements for the iPhone Ultra screen.
The Cupertino company would normally want to bring other display partners on stream as soon as they were able to catch up, but a new report says that this won’t be happening for Apple’s most expensive ever iPhone.
Samsung wins three-year exclusivity
The Elec says that Samsung was able to negotiate a contract granting it the exclusive rights to manufacture displays for the iPhone Ultra for a period of three years.
Apple has agreed to source foldable smartphone organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels exclusively from Samsung Display for the next three years, according to multiple industry officials. The agreement will remain valid for three years, during which Apple will not use foldable panels from other display suppliers. The exclusive arrangement was proposed by Samsung Display, according to people familiar with the matter.
Samsung’s technological lead put it in a strong negotiating position, but the report indicates it also wanted to protect its investment in the iPhone-exclusive production lines needed to make the displays.
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