Apple catches up in foldables. Wall Street likes it

Apple Inc ( NASDAQ:AAPL XETRA:APC ) had a good Thursday, with shares up 3.1% after unveiling its first foldable iPhone, the $1,999-and-up iPhone Duo. The move puts Apple into a market Samsung, Google and Huawei have played in for years – the biggest shake-up to the iPhone lineup in a long time. The reveal also marked new CEO John Ternus's first major product launch since taking over. The Duo packs a 5.4-inch outer display, a 7.6-inch inner display, Apple's new A20 Pro chip with a fresh display engine, and Touch ID. It comes in star white and night sky, starts at $2,000 for 256GB and tops out at $3,200 for 2TB. Pre-orders open October 16, with shipping starting October 23. Apple also trimmed its lineup to three models: the Pro ($1,199), the Pro Max ($1,299), and the Duo, with both the Pro and Pro Max up $100 from last year.

What analysts are saying Bank of America called the Duo the star of the show, praising how well Apple blended the hardware and software. The bank sees the bigger foldable screen opening up a much larger market for Apple, especially once pencil support arrives later in the year and the device starts feeling more like an iPad for productivity. New touches like dual capture in FaceTime and apps built around the extra screen space should help it go mainstream over time, analysts added. UBS said the event mostly matched expectations, since the firm had already anticipated the foldable, though it still called the Duo a real shift for the lineup. On pricing, UBS noted the $100 increases on the Pro and Pro Max don't fully offset Apple's higher memory costs, but a bigger $200 jump likely would have hurt demand. The bank pointed back to 2022, whe...