Apple reportedly prepping three ‘Ultra’ devices this year: foldable iPhone, camera‑equipped AirPods, OLED MacBook

Apple’s push upmarket

Apple is planning at least three new Ultra‑tier products this year, signaling a sharper pivot to the very high end of its lineup, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, as cited by IT Home (IT之家). The reported trio includes a foldable “iPhone Ultra” priced around $2,000, “AirPods Ultra” with an onboard camera for visual intelligence, and a “MacBook Ultra” featuring a touch‑enabled OLED display. The strategy? Double down on premium hardware as mainstream lines stabilize.

What’s reportedly coming

Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter that the foldable iPhone Ultra would debut with a large inner display and under‑display sensors—an attempt to “outshine” other iPhone models. AirPods Ultra would sit above AirPods Pro, reportedly integrating a computer‑vision camera to feed contextual data to Siri. And the MacBook Ultra would move to OLED with touch support and carry up to a 20% price increase, positioned above laptops using the forthcoming M5 Pro and M5 Max chips rather than replacing them. Ambitious? Absolutely. Official? Not yet—Apple has not announced these products, and details remain unconfirmed.

Why it matters

A foldable iPhone would drop Apple into a space dominated by Chinese and Korean rivals, where Huawei (华为), Oppo (欧珀), Xiaomi (小米), Honor (荣耀), and Samsung have iterated quickly and captured premium mindshare. It would also test Apple’s pricing power amid a maturing global smartphone market and heightened competition in China, a key revenue driver where Apple faces headwinds from local champions and shifting procurement rules. Meanwhile, camera‑equipped AirPods would reflect a broader industry shift toward multimodal AI—blending audio, vision, and on‑device processing—just as Washington’s export controls and evolving supply‑chain dynamics keep pressure on timelines and component choices across the industry.

Branding caveats—and what’s next

Despite the growing use of “Ultra” on Apple’s silicon and Apple Watch, Gurman cautions the company may not apply the label to every device in this wave; even some recent high‑end Apple displays reportedly skipped it. He adds that Apple is exploring more ultra‑premium moves for iPad and Mac, including a foldable‑OLED iPad and a larger, more powerful iMac. The message is clear: expect Apple to stretch higher. The open question is when—and which products will actually carry the Ultra name when they ship.