Eight Years in the Making: Apple's Foldable iPhone Could Restart the Smartphone Upgrade Cycle

<p>The smartphone has become a mature, even sleepy, product. Buyers who once queued overnight now hold onto their handsets for four or five years, upgrading only when a battery fades or a screen cracks. Apple's answer, arriving at its September event, is the most radical redesign of the iPhone in years: a folding model reported to have been under development for at least eight years and expected to sell for around A$2,775. The bigger question for investors is whether it can restart a stalled upgrade cycle.</p>

<h2>Why the cycle stalled</h2>

<p>Apple's installed base is enormous - well over a billion active iPhones - but that scale has become a double-edged sword. Recent iPhone generations have offered incremental gains, and lengthening replacement cycles have made unit growth hard to come by. The company has leaned increasingly on services Revenue and price rises to keep growing.</p>