TrendForce says Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra could begin at $2,099 to $2,299 for a 256GB model, with some higher-storage versions climbing past $3,000. The pricing forecast lands as one of the clearest iPhone 18 Pro price leaks yet, and it points to a handset that would sit far above Apple’s current top-end phones.
The timing matters because the report was published at 11:21 AM EDT on Thu Sep 03 2026, when buyers and investors are already trying to read the next step in Apple’s premium strategy. William Gallagher’s report frames the Ultra as the phone that could define Apple’s first real move into foldables, while also testing how much the market will pay for a device that is still expected to remain niche.
TrendForce gave the Ultra a storage ladder that stretches beyond the entry model: 512GB, 1TB and 2TB versions are in the forecast. That matters because the base price is only the starting point. If Apple follows the usual pattern of charging more as storage rises, the upper tiers would quickly move into territory that most buyers have never seen for an iPhone. TrendForce researchers said some configurations could pass $3,000, which would make the Ultra the most costly iPhone Apple has ever made.
There is a reason those numbers look so aggressive. TrendForce said all iPhone models are expected to rise by 10% to 20%, and it tied the broader jump to component shortages and rising costs. The firm also said the cost of a 256GB module is now 400% higher than a year ago. That is the kind of increase that can force Apple either to push prices up or to trim its own margin somewhere else.
That is where the report gets interesting. TrendForce said Apple may absorb some of the cost to preserve market share, even as the Ultra moves into a new price band. In other words, Apple appears to be facing a choice between protecting volume and protecting pricing discipline. For a foldable phone, that balance matters more than usual because TrendForce estimated foldables would account for no more than around 2% of the global smartphone market in 2026.
Apple has done this kind of pricing climb before. The iPhone X became the first iPhone to cost more than $1,000 in 2017, and the maxed-out iPhone 17 Pro Max was already a dollar short of $2,000. The Ultra would take the next step from that line, turning what was once the ceiling into the floor for Apple’s new flagship foldable.
One separate forecast put Apple’s sales of the iPhone Ultra at 14 million across fiscal year 2027, but that figure sits beside a bigger unanswered point: which configurations will actually cross $3,000. TrendForce has already drawn the outline. Apple still has to decide how much of that cost it wants customers to carry.
