Apple Releases the iPhone 18 Pro Lineup and the Foldable iPhone Duo. Do These New Products Signal a Golden Age of Product Innovation Under CEO John Ternus?
Key Points
The foldable iPhone Duo is one of the biggest changes Apple has made to its flagship product.
The starting price for the Duo is steep at $1,999.
Ternus formerly served as Apple's head of hardware engineering, making him a "product guy," similar to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
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The consumer tech giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a new CEO, and Apple's flagship product, the iPhone, has a new look.
At a widely anticipated product launch event on Sept. 9 at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, the company introduced several new products, including the iPhone 18 Pro and a new foldable smartphone called the iPhone Duo.
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It's the first major product release under new CEO John Ternus, who formally began his tenure on Sept. 1. The event was an opportunity for Ternus to introduce himself to the world.
The foldable iPhone Duo is also one of the largest aesthetic changes to the iPhone ever. Do these new products signal a golden age of product innovation under Ternus?
Image source: Apple.
A big test for Apple
In addition to the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, Apple also introduced two new models of the Apple Watch and the AirPods 5.
However, the iPhone, which accounts for over half of Apple's revenue, will always be front and center.
Starting at $1199, the Apple 18 Pro features the most advanced camera on any iPhone, including improved low-light photos and video.
The iPhone 18 Pro also features the longest battery life of any iPhone, a higher-bandwidth chip, which will allow on-device AI models to run faster, and an all-new Siri AI digital assistant.
While the 18 Pro boasts many new and improved features, the iPhone Duo is definitely getting more hype for its new foldable look.
It's the iPhone's first foldable display, and once fully open, it’s the thinnest iPhone ever and offers a 7.6-inch display.
"iPhone Duo is the most transformational change to iPhone since the original. With an entirely new design and intuitive experiences, it shows what's possible when hardware and software are engineered together and redefines what it means to use a foldable phone," Ternus said in a statement.
The new product launch is a big test for Apple. Not only is it one of Apple’s first launches under Ternus, but it also follows record sales for the iPhone 17.
Some analysts suspect that the iPhone 17’s success had more to do with pent-up demand than actual product innovation, meaning more people were simply due for an upgrade. But either way, there is more on the line with the Duo and its improved look.
The new model also starts at $1,999, so people will need to really like the Duo to be willing to pay that much.
Is this the beginning of a golden age of product innovation?
Shareholders are likely to miss Cook greatly, as Apple's stock performed incredibly well during his tenure. Interestingly, Cook is also credited with bringing the Duo to fruition.
But the excitement surrounding Ternus is that he is a "product guy," an ode to the late Steve Jobs, Apple's former CEO and co-founder. Prior to becoming CEO, Ternus was Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering.
When Apple first introduced the iPhone in 2007, nobody had seen anything quite like it. It was really the pioneer of the smartphone market.
Since then, product innovation has grown a bit stale, at least from an aesthetic standpoint, although the iPhone has long dominated the U.S. smartphone market, so why fix it if it's not broke?
Do I view the new foldable Duo iPhone as an event equivalent to the iPhone's release? Absolutely not. Some companies have already rolled out a foldable smartphone.
But the stakes aren't as high as they were in 2007. As I mentioned, Apple is already the leading smartphone maker in the U.S. by a wide margin and regularly battles Samsung for the top spot globally, according to Counterpoint Research.
If Apple can generate strong sales from the Duo despite its high price tag, that should boost profitability and the company's margins.
For shareholders, that would likely be enough to call it a golden age.
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Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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