Apple closed at another record high after several reports said the tech giant is planning to roll out foldable iPhones and iPads as soon as 2026.
D.A. Davidson Companies managing director Gil Luria and The Wall Street Journal's senior personal technology columnist Joanna Stern share their take on whether the hardware update really matters to the stock and consumers.
Joining us now, DA Davidson, managing director Gil Luria and Wall Street Journal senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern, also a CNBC contributor. Joanna, I feel like we know each other from somewhere. I just can't place it. Alright, going into that, how real because there's a lot of, you know, Apple rumors that are out there. How real do you think these Apple foldable phone headlines maybe? Look, I think it is a question now. It's not a question of if it's when Apple is going to do a foldable phone. Are they going to do it in 2025? I do not think so. All these reports point to 2026 at the earliest. But look, there's been a lot of progress in this hardware. We've seen it from Samsung. We've seen it from Google and their Pixel line. Things are getting better. Apples clearly working on that in their own labs. It's just a no brainer. One day we will have an foldable iPhone. I'm going to be a jerk here. Joanna, go back to you. There is an Apple. Competitor Samsung that that has a foldable thing. They've they've been, by the way, folding their devices for more than a year. I see them sometimes. They're neat looking. I don't see them moving the equity in Korea. I don't see people really talking about them. Would it even matter if they were to come out with some foldable device? I think it would matter. I think two things have to happen though. The first thing is this technology has to get better. They've got to bring the cost down. But here's where Apple is interesting in the US market, especially Apple is in that premium people are buying those pro phones. In fact, they're buying those phones sometimes more than they're buying those lower end regular phones. So Apple stands to actually hit that market in a really interesting way where Samsung look, they've always spanned this this the entire like from low end to the high end, but they've not been as popular in some of the higher end And so Apple. Really stands there to make a dent with a foldable, but again, not happening. I don't believe in the next year's Guild. Doesn't matter to you. Ohh, it matters a lot. It matters to the stock because the stock has worked since Worldwide Developer Conference because for the first time in a while, we believe that there's going to be an iPhone upgrade cycle. Initially we thought it was going to be because of Apple intelligence. As we realized that that's going to be gradual, that is going to stretch out the upgrade cycle. Introducing a foldable phone in 2026 could make it a couple of year upgrade cycle. And since the stock is up 30%. Since Worldwide Developer Conference, you really need new ways for investors to believe that iPhone won't be as stagnant as it's been for the last four years.
