Former Apple CEO Tim Cook played a major role in the development of the foldable iPhone, which could reach around $3,000 with storage upgrades, according to new details shared by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Early in development, the company reportedly targeted a starting retail price of $1,999, hoping to come under the "potentially controversial $2,000 barrier." Amid the impact of the global memory shortage, Apple is said to have recently discussed pricing the foldable at $2,199. Some storage configurations could approach $3,000. While the company anticipates some "sticker shock" for consumers, the willingness of customers to spend around $2,000 on iPhone models with upgraded storage convinced the company that an "upscale foldable device was worth bringing to market."

Gurman also revealed details about the history of the foldable iPhone inside Apple. Around 2020, Tim Cook apparently returned from a visit to Asia "unusually energized" about foldable phones. During the trip, he saw growing numbers of consumers using foldable devices from the likes of Samsung and Huawei. He came to believe that Apple needed an equivalent offering and pushed the company to accelerate its development efforts. Apple's hardware engineering team had been studying foldable phones, displays, and related components for years, dating back to well before the launch of the first Galaxy Fold device in 2019. Before Cook's guidance, the project was mired by debates over the form that an Apple foldable should take, with one early concept being an iPad mini that could unfold into a larger tablet. Tim Cook wanted the final device to be more mainstream in the form of a foldable iPhone, and his level of involvement in the project was unusual. The project was conceived under Dan Riccio, who preceded John Ternus as head of hardware engineering.