00:00Apple is expected to unveil its first ever fold foldable iPhone reports it will cost more than
00:07$2,000. Now foldable phones aren't new. Samsung was the first mainstream brand to release one
00:14in 2019. But what Apple has often done is sit back and work on developing what it calls the
00:21products people actually want. And many analysts believe that Apple's later entry into this market
00:26could make foldable phones more mainstream. The launch event will be headlined by new chief
00:32executive John Turnus, who took over on September 1st from Tim Cook after 15 years in charge.
00:40Turnus will outline his vision for Apple's future at the company's HQ in California.
00:46And Chinese tech giants Huawei and Xiaomi launched their latest models a few days before Apple's
00:52announcement. Xiaomi debuted its first foldable phone, I should say, while Huawei, which accounts
00:58for more than two thirds of the foldables market in China, unveiled its upgraded trifold model with
01:04privacy screen. Well, let's get more on this. Rob Nyes is founding partner of H3 Capital, a London-based
01:11technology venture capital firm. Rob, great to speak to you again. So Apple are late to this market,
01:17but could that be an advantage? I think you're exactly right. They've been, if you believe the
01:23rumor, is working on this for 10 years and trying to get it exactly right. You know, to make these
01:27phones fold, it's a technically almost impossible challenge to get rid of that gap in between and
01:32make sure things are totally smooth. And they're using some really interesting technologies for
01:36manufacturing, supposedly, to try and get them as strong as possible, as light as possible, and make
01:40that flip look seamless in the way that Apple would expect. So foldable phones actually only make up
01:46around 2% of the global smartphone market. So what does Apple have to do differently to make
01:53foldable phones become more mainstream? Well, I think like everything with Apple,
01:58they have to make it in their own image and make people really excited about it. I think,
02:02you know, from the leaks that have seen so far, you know, it looks very smooth. The fold has been
02:06almost invisible from what everyone says, and the performance looks very good. It looks like if
02:11you're a power user that needs to see full screens or spending a lot of time watching videos,
02:14it's a really different experience, almost like carrying an iPad in your pocket, which seems
02:18compelling for a certain number of the population.
02:22Foldable iPhone is seen somewhat as Tim Cook's parting gift as CEO, but it's also a very big day
02:27for the new CEO. What do you expect from his vision for Apple?
02:32It's a good question. I think they're still coming from behind in things like AI, where they really
02:36haven't impressed so far with adding AI to their products. There's still a big gap for them to fill
02:41and try and impress people and build really wow experiences. But I think hardware-wise,
02:46it's always been a hardware company first. And I think this fold, the folding phone will be the
02:50ultra, if you believe it's not the rumors. The ultra will be really exciting for people,
02:54he hopes.
02:55The phone's expected to cost more than $2,000. And these foldable phones are expensive.
03:00Do you think enough people are going to be interested to make it the thing of the future?
03:06Look, price has never held Apple back. I mean, continuously, for the past 10 or 15 years at
03:11least, they've always had one of the highest price points on the market and have been testing
03:14higher price points with every subsequent model. So I don't think price will put people off. I think
03:18there's enough interest. If it's a great product and a great experience, the price will be no object
03:22for a good number of people.
03:24This launch comes at a difficult time, though, for manufacturers with memory chips in short supply.
03:30Is Apple going to be exposed to that?
03:32I think you can't not be exposed in the industry if you're building any kind of products because
03:36every chip is in some way constrained because it's so zero-sum. There's only so much manufacturing
03:40capacity for every chip. So things just get squeezed around. Apple's, of course, in a very
03:45good position because they can think on such a long time scale and they have such buying
03:49power with both their volume as well as their pricing. They've secured inventory for a lot
03:53of these parts way ahead of other competitors. So I do think compared to everyone else in the
03:57industry, they're probably among the best positioned. But it's always hard to get the allocations
04:01and try and make sure you can get utilization as high as possible with inventories you have.
04:05Let's go.
04:05Let's go.
04:05Let's go.
04:05Let's go.
04:05Let's go.
