Apple expected to unveil first folding phone, with new CEO Ternus in command

By Stephen Nellis and Kenrick Cai

CUPERTINO, California, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Apple is widely expected to unveil a pricey folding iPhone at a launch event on Wednesday at its Cupertino, California, headquarters.

The event, the first with new CEO John Ternus at the helm, will be the most noticeable overhaul of Apple's flagship product since it removed the physical home button from the iPhone X in 2017. The iPhone brought in $209.6 billion, or just over half of Apple's sales, in its most recent fiscal year.

The keynote address will also be the first extended commentary from Ternus, who previously served as Apple's hardware chief but has kept a low public profile aside from a handful of product introductions and sustainability initiatives. It will fall to Ternus to persuade Apple's customers that they need a foldable device that could cost more than $2,000, a new high for a global brand that has defined mass luxury.

While Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold folding phones since 2019, the devices have remained a niche among tech enthusiasts. But even with a steep price tag, analyst firms such as IDC expect Apple will sell every foldable iPhone it can produce and secure a 40% share of the lucrative niche by the end of next year.

Analysts also expect Apple to benefit from its late entry into the folding phone category by mastering key engineering challenges such as creating an elegant-but-sturdy hinge that can survive repeated opening and minimize how much of a crease shows where the screen folds.

One key remaining challenge could be how well the devices resist dust and water, an area in which Google's most recent Pixel 10 Pro Fold bested Samsung's offerings with what is known as an IP68 rating, meaning the device is dust-tight and can be dunked in a meter of water.

Wednesday's event is also expected to mark a major change in Apple's annual product schedule.

While analysts expect Apple to show off new watches, they anticipate the company will hold off on updates to its more affordable iPhone models until next spring and instead focus only on the new folding device and its iPhone Pro and Pro Max lineup.

The move is aimed at smoothing out Apple's annual sales cycle, which typically shows a large bump in revenue during the year-end holiday quarter for the U.S. and Europe.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Kenrick Cai in Cupertino, California; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Nia Williams)