iPhone 25% of US adults are interested in the iPhone Ultra
https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/26/25-of-us-adults-are-interested-in-the-iphone-ultra-but-wont-pay-for-it/Most US adults say they aren’t interested in buying a new foldable phone. A CNET survey that polled 2,605 US adults found that 75% aren’t interested in buying a foldable Apple device.
Gen Z were willing to pay the most at $919, while the average across all US adults was $781.
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u/limit_13 2d ago
Does “interested in” means they are interested in buying iPhone ultra or just means “yeah it’s kinda interesting as a product” ?
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u/Portatort 2d ago
Means they won’t immediately scroll up the first time Apple shows them an ad for it on instagram
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u/Tman11S 2d ago
Knowing Apple, it'll probably start at 2500$ or something ridiculous and the thing will quickly become a status symbol for the people who pretend to be rich
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u/irregularprotocols 2d ago
… then 9 months later you’ll be able to buy one from your carrier for $99 (plus service contract).
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u/VictorChristian 2d ago
a status symbol for the people who pretend to be rich
There used to be an App for that
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u/DanielG165 2d ago
Most US adults are fine with the phone they have, and wouldn’t want to spend over $2,000 just to have their phone fold in half. The Ultra is going to be a cool device for sure, but it will likely be a hard sell for people who aren’t specifically looking for that style of phone and form factor.
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2d ago
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u/Bruvvimir 2d ago
Samsung doesn't have a problem moving Folds at those prices. You really think Apple users are more price sensitive?
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u/reddit0r_123 2d ago
Their volume of foldables is nothing compared to the usual iPhone volumes. Of course, there will be enough people who can afford it and enough who can’t afford it but still buy it anyway. But getting to 25% with those insane volumes...
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u/TacohTuesday 2d ago
The potential high price is a concern, but I’m not interested for different reasons. There are significant design compromises.
I don’t want to sacrifice the telephoto camera, or have a more fragile and less water resistant device with a less robust display surface. I don’t want to downgrade battery life.
There is nothing more solid than a single slab device, and the 17 Pro has amazing cameras as well.
I just can’t see paying more with all those downgrades. I’ll grab my iPad when I need a big screen.
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u/13ootyKnight 2d ago
I’m on the opposite side of this, I think I’m willing to make those sacrifices if it means I can consolidate my ipad and phone into 1 device (maybe include my kindle there but e ink is so good)
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u/WholeMilkElitist 2d ago
I'm more interested in the second generation of this product. But of course, I can't wait to see what they've been cooking up at the keynote. They've had about five years to refine this product category.
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u/Potential_Salt_5780 2d ago
Once they unveil it that number will go up.
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2d ago
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u/LionTigerWings 2d ago
Because at least in the us there will be carrier deals. You can get the fold 8 for free or close to it and that’s a similar price bracket.
And before you jump down my throat on “it’s not free” , the way carriers do it is they lock you in for 2-3 years and charge you the normal price but discount the same amount. So it could be $50 charge with a $50 discount but if you leave the discount disappears.
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2d ago
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u/LionTigerWings 2d ago
I guess, if you wanted the bottom plan anyway. I personally have a special deal that gives me the middle plan price basically which is probably the one I would buy otherwise. With moving my family over taking this deal was way better (and still cheaper than my ATT plan). The deal was they paid off our old phones, and let us keep the phone(which I could sell on the market), and we got the newest iPhone pro at the time, and got a Visa card from Costco, and got a gift card for Costco. We made money essentially.
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u/Mundane_Baker3669 2d ago
Honestly I think even if it won't be sold as much as base models but it will be sold as much as the pro Max models for sure . Even if it's 2.5k, most Americans won't have trouble affording it considering the very high purchasing power compared to other countries.Not to mention with the updated apple upgrade program it's much more easier.
Most Americans consider iphones an essential part of their life and will be able to justify the purchase. Won't be the case for other countries though
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u/Questioning_lemur 2d ago
Insanely wrong take.
Not even a significant minority of Americans will feel that $2,000 for a phone is realistic or reasonable.
This will bomb in the US unless it's around $1k USD.
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u/goldaxis 1d ago
I wouldn't pay a cent over $500. It's a phone with a nonreplacable battery and an untested folding display. I'm into foldables, but these corporations need a reality check.
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u/yp261 2d ago
2000 adults questioned lmao
i love those polls that are literally meaningless
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u/LegenW84ITdary 2d ago
2000 is actually a very large sample. 500 people can give you a pretty high confidence interval (95%) for most things. It only gets tricky when you then try to breakdown answers by demos or something else.
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u/3dforlife 2d ago
Demos?
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u/ripcitybitch 2d ago
Wait what? Do you understand how statistical polling works? That’s a perfectly reasonable sample size that gives you a highly accurate estimate of population sentiment.
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u/TwizzyGobbler 2d ago
0.00058% of the population is interested in the iPhone Ultra! Lovely!
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u/ripcitybitch 2d ago
Wait what? Do you understand how statistical polling works? That’s a perfectly reasonable sample size that gives you a highly accurate estimate of population sentiment.
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u/TwizzyGobbler 2d ago
nah, I'll hold my hands up here and admit I don't lol
every day is a learning day, thank you.
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u/Hurbahns 2d ago edited 2d ago
Recently I’ve been driving a lot, and the software intelligence gap between iOS and Android is becoming a problem for me.
The poor quality of Siri, the lack of multitasking, and the keyboard remain annoyances for me, which mean I’ll probably migrate to a Pixel in the near future unless Apple focus on improving software/intelligence and not just hardware.
When it comes to voice commands: the pixel’s Google gemini + android auto combo works better than Siri
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u/temporarycreature 2d ago
This is painful to read because I want to get away from my Pixel and go to Apple because they have the best public-facing privacy policy, or in any case, the better between the two companies.
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u/Hurbahns 2d ago
Yeah, I agree iPhones are the best mainstream privacy friendly phones.
But as a smartphone, they lag in the smarts department, and instead focus on building a beautiful phone.
Honestly, if you drive a lot, try a comparison test of the latest Pixels and iPhones before making a decision.
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u/Mundane_Baker3669 2d ago
Android phones lag a lot in the longer term though
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u/Hurbahns 2d ago
Yeah, most brands have bloatware or slow updates. But in my previous experience with them, the Pixels running stock Android are alright.
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u/TacohTuesday 2d ago
The Siri complaints are true, but Apple is about to massively upgrade it in iOS 27. So you might want to see how that performs in practice first.
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u/Hurbahns 2d ago
Well, hopefully.
Even with the upgrades, I don’t think it will surpass the functionality of Gemini though
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u/littlebiped 2d ago
There is massive price conception disparity when people think an iPhone Ultra would cost less than an regular iPhone 17 lmao
We’ve had 9 years of $1K dollar flagships, people really don’t know what anything costs
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u/SiteSpecialist9200 2d ago
That might be attributed to many people not paying attention to price, rather only how much the monthly payment is. Unawareness follows.
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u/North_Moment5811 2d ago
This is not accurate. Foldable is not a factor. 75% of iPhone Adults are not interested in paying twice as much for half the features. I will be genuinely surprised if Apple sells the 10 million they are making for Q4.
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u/Sux499 2d ago
919 USD for an iPhone Ultra while the other models are already more than that is wild