A folding phone, a device with a flexible display that physically bends so a larger screen can collapse to pocket size, is among the products analysts expect Apple to reveal at a launch event now set for September 9. If correct, it would mark Apple's first device in that category. The event will also be the first held under John Ternus, who leads Apple as its new chief executive.
Alongside the folding phone, analysts project the lineup to include new iPhone models and updated Apple Watch hardware. Analyst projections and Apple announcements are different things. The date is confirmed. The specific products are expected, not announced.
The folding phone carries more weight than a standard new-model update because Apple has never shipped one. The technology pairs a flexible display panel with a mechanical hinge, letting the device close like a book and open to a screen wider than what a conventional smartphone offers. Several of Apple's major hardware rivals have sold devices built this way for years. Apple has not.
Ternus takes the stage on September 9 as Apple's new chief executive, making it his first iPhone launch event in that role. What the date sets up: whether the folding phone arrives, and how the company's new leadership handles a product reveal at this scale.