Apple has not confirmed a single spec, shown a single render, or said the words “iPhone Ultra” out loud. Yet its rumored foldable phone is already reshaping how much every other folding phone on the market costs. According to new analysis from Counterpoint Research, the average selling price of foldable smartphones is on track to jump 18 percent in 2026, and Apple’s looming entry is a big part of the reason why.
⭐ In short – the key facts
- The iPhone Ultra is rumored to start around $2,500, with top configurations reportedly reaching $3,000.
- Counterpoint Research expects the average foldable phone price to hit $1,485 in 2026, up 18% from 2025.
- Foldables priced between $1,600 and $2,000 are set to nearly double their market share, from 30% to 58%.
- Samsung says it is “welcoming others to join this category,” a sign it sees Apple’s price tag as good news, not a threat.
What Apple’s Foldable iPhone Is Actually Rumored to Cost
Pricing estimates for Apple’s foldable have been climbing all year. Early reports built around comments from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed to an entry price of roughly $1,999 to $2,000, which would already have made it the most expensive iPhone Apple had ever sold. That number has since moved. More recent supply chain estimates, including projections cited by IDC, now put the starting price closer to $2,500, with the highest storage configuration potentially crossing $3,000.
That is not a small revision. A jump from $2,000 to $2,500 at the entry tier is a 25 percent increase before the phone has even been announced. Whether Apple ultimately calls the device the iPhone Fold or the iPhone Ultra is still genuinely unsettled, but the price direction is not: every fresh leak has pointed up, never down.
The Number That Actually Matters: an 18 Percent Market-Wide Jump
A single expensive phone from Apple would not normally move an entire product category. What makes this different is the scale Counterpoint Research is now forecasting. The firm expects the average selling price across all foldable smartphones, not just Apple’s, to reach $1,485 in 2026. That is up 18 percent from 2025, and up 29 percent from 2024.
Counterpoint’s own explanation is worth quoting directly, because it gets at the mechanism rather than just the headline number: “Apple’s entry in the foldable market is also expected to further boost the upward ASP trend by keeping market attention on high-priced segments,” the firm noted, adding that this dynamic will “increase interest in software continuity, app support, and productivity across foldable categories and help establish foldables as a higher-value segment within the smartphone market.”
In plain terms, Apple does not need to sell millions of units to move the average. It needs to make a $2,000-plus foldable feel normal, and every other manufacturer benefits from that shift in perception, whether or not their own phone actually costs that much.
Why the Middle of the Market Is Where the Real Action Is
Here is the part that surprised us most digging into Counterpoint’s numbers: the segment growing fastest is not the very top of the market, it is the tier just below it. Foldables priced between $1,600 and $2,000 are projected to jump from 30 percent of shipments in 2025 to 58 percent in 2026, nearly doubling. Meanwhile, the $2,000-and-above segment is actually expected to shrink slightly, from 3 percent down to 2 percent of shipments.
That split makes sense once you think about who is actually buying these phones. Apple’s rumored $2,500 starting price sets a new ceiling that makes a $1,799 or $1,899 foldable look comparatively reasonable, even though that price would have seemed extreme just two years ago. Manufacturers get to raise prices into that newly normalized middle tier without having to match Apple’s most extreme configuration, and most buyers end up there rather than at the very top.
Samsung Is Not Worried. Here Is Why
Samsung has had the foldable market mostly to itself for years, so you might expect the company to see Apple’s arrival as a threat. Its public response has said otherwise. A Samsung executive described the company as “welcoming others to join this category” when asked directly about the iPhone Ultra, language that reads a lot more like relief than concern.
That reaction lines up with what Samsung is doing with its own lineup. The upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8, expected to launch on July 22 in London, is reportedly arriving in three separate configurations, with the top Ultra tier estimated at roughly $1,999 for 256GB, climbing toward $2,699 to $2,799 at 1TB. Positioned next to a $2,500-plus iPhone, those prices suddenly look far less aggressive than they would have on their own. Apple, in effect, is doing some of Samsung’s pricing work for it.
The Real Reason Foldables Keep Getting More Expensive
Apple’s price is not happening in a vacuum. Component costs across the entire smartphone industry have been climbing in 2026, largely because AI data centers are consuming a huge share of the global memory chip supply, driving up RAM and storage prices for every device maker. Foldables are hit harder than standard phones because they typically ship with more memory and larger batteries split across two internal cells, so they absorb more of that cost increase per unit.
On top of that, the display technology needed to make a foldable feel premium is itself expensive. Samsung Display is reportedly supplying Apple’s foldable under an exclusive multi-year deal, using a dual-layer ultra-thin glass structure designed to nearly eliminate the crease that has bothered foldable owners since the very first Galaxy Fold. Apple is also said to be building the hinge out of Liquidmetal, an amorphous alloy that is more durable than titanium but has reportedly caused its own manufacturing headaches, including hinge rattling in early testing that pushed mass production back by several months. None of that comes cheap, and competitors chasing the same crease-free feel are paying similar premiums to their own display and component suppliers.
What This Means If You Are Shopping for a Foldable This Year
If you have been holding off on a foldable phone waiting for prices to come back down, the data suggests the opposite is happening, at least for now. The sweet spot for value is shifting toward that $1,600 to $2,000 range rather than the very top of the market, so shoppers who stretch slightly beyond a base model but stop short of the most expensive configuration are likely to get the best mix of features for the money in 2026.
It is also worth remembering that Apple has not launched anything yet, and its own track record includes real manufacturing setbacks that could still push the release from a fall announcement into early 2027. Samsung’s Z Fold 8 arrives first, other foldables are landing later this year as well, and the final shape of the market will depend on how buyers actually respond once Apple’s phone, and its real price tag, are sitting on a shelf next to everything else.
For now, the safest assumption is the simplest one: foldable phones were already expensive, and thanks to Apple, they are about to get more expensive still, no matter which brand’s logo ends up on the one you buy.
