The iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable handset, has already added billions to the company’s valuation despite not a single unit being sold. The device was formally made part of Apple’s smartphone range on Wednesday, and market movements since then suggest the foldable is worth approximately £115 billion to the company.
The figure derives from activity on Wall Street. On the day of the introduction, Apple’s shares barely reacted, declining by 88 cents, or 0.28%, during the “Surprise and Shine” event. The following day, however, investors began buying, sending the stock as high as EUR 281. At that peak, Apple’s shares had risen EUR 9. With approximately 14.59 billion shares outstanding, the move added close to £115 billion to Apple’s market capitalisation.
Wall Street divided on foldable strategy
Analysts are split on the first foldable iPhone. Apple set the iPhone Duo starting price at EUR 1,721 (around £1,570), below the rumoured range of EUR 1,894 to EUR 2,152 (roughly £1,730 to £1,965). The lower price could generate more sales, but profit margins on the Duo are expected to be lower than anticipated.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley said this indicates Apple is aiming for higher adoption of the foldable rather than the highest possible margins. Jefferies and broker-dealer Rosenblatt echoed the view, stating that Apple is prioritising sales volume over profitability. The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max were also introduced and appear to be well received.
Memory shortage adds pressure
A further concern relates to a memory chip shortage and price rises driven by the buildout of data centres for AI. Chipmakers including SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron must choose between producing DRAM memory chips for smartphones and higher-margin High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) stacks. The three firms are favouring the more profitable HBM chips, leaving smartphone manufacturers to pay higher prices for increasingly scarce DRAM.
Retail investors turn bullish
Retail investors, the everyday consumers who invest in the market rather than large hedge funds or mutual funds, had been bearish before Wednesday’s product introductions. Following the “Surprise and Shine” event, the website Stocktwits raised Apple’s Sentiment Score to 73 out of 100, moving it into bullish territory from bearish.
Apple was mentioned 2,077 times a day on the site’s message boards, up 78% from three months ago.
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Image: phonearena.com
