The first foldable iPhone, widely referred to as the iPhone Ultra, is on course for a September 2026 unveiling alongside the iPhone 18 Pro line-up, but the device will be exceptionally scarce in its initial months. Taipei-based supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo projects that Apple will ship just 500,000 to 1 million units in the third quarter of 2026, a fraction of the 7–8 million units expected in the second half of the year. The constrained supply, he notes, stems from the complexity of the foldable design, which introduces fresh mass-production challenges reminiscent of the staggered iPhone X launch in 2017. Even before any official announcement, the scarcity is being priced in: Russian luxury customisation house Caviar has opened pre-orders for a handcrafted “Flagship” collection of foldable iPhone Ultras, with prices starting at $13,840 and rising to $16,270 for a 1TB gold-and-carbon-fibre edition.

The production bottleneck, Kuo explains, will push delivery lead times to four to six weeks or longer immediately after pre-orders open, and the tight availability is expected to persist through December 2026. Apple is believed to be targeting a retail price between $2,000 and $2,500, roughly double the cost of the current iPhone 17 Pro Max. Code references discovered in the iOS 27 beta—including terms such as “foldState” and “angleDegrees”—reinforce the view that the hardware is advancing toward release, with a rumoured 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.8-inch internal screen.

Caviar’s collection, built on leaked specifications rather than confirmed Apple data, illustrates the anticipation surrounding the device. The four variants—Dark Cherry, Titan, Silver, and Gold—combine 24K gold, aerospace-grade titanium, crocodile leather, and carbon fibre, each featuring a raised three-dimensional Apple logo. The brand lists an A20 Pro chip, 12GB of RAM, a 24-megapixel under-display front camera, and a 120Hz LTPO OLED panel, though none of these details have been verified by Apple. Separately, high-resolution images of a purported iPhone 18 Pro motherboard have surfaced on social media, showing what appears to be an A20 Pro processor using wafer-level multi-chip module packaging and a Qualcomm Snapdragon X80 modem, suggesting that Apple’s in-house modem efforts have not yet displaced Qualcomm in the flagship tier.

The next factual milestone is Apple’s September product event, where the company is expected to detail the iPhone Ultra’s specifications, pricing, and on-sale dates. Whether the initial shipment volumes align with Kuo’s forecast will become clear only when pre-orders begin, likely in the weeks following the announcement.