A new report from Australia of all places today claims that while Apple will unveil the foldable iPhone Ultra at its September 8 event, the device will not be released at the same time as the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, which are also expected to be announced on the same occasion.
Not just that, but apparently the iPhone Ultra will only be released in the US first, followed by a handful of other key markets, including China. Australia, for what it’s worth, won’t be one of them.
Interestingly, this report also claims that Apple will not announce pricing for the iPhone Ultra at the September 8 event. It will just show the device. The foldable is obviously expected to be more expensive than the Pro and Pro Max models, and the pricing for Australia will allegedly be “up to” AUD 700 higher than that of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, which is currently retailing over there for AUD 2,999 ($2,118). So the iPhone Ultra could go for AUD 3,699 ($2,613).
Today’s report says production problems are to blame for this situation, with Apple’s suppliers allegedly hitting “more issues than expected” during the production verification tests, with the hinge and the foldable display being the key sticking points. Mass production was apparently first scheduled to begin in June, before slipping to August, and now the date has reportedly been pushed back again.
Even in late July, Foxconn was still making “adjustments” to its mass production plans, and some unnamed “insiders” are apparently now claiming that “engineering validation” could cause a further two-month delay.
You do have to take this report with a pretty sizable grain of salt, however, since the writers are referring to the iPhone Ultra as the iPhone Fold, which wouldn’t be a problem in and of itself, but they seem to be under the impression that Apple is launching the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, iPhone Ultra, and iPhone Fold on September 8. That’s not a thing, the Ultra is the foldable device, as countless recent rumors have already made clear.