Almost Half of iPhone Pro Owners Would Buy an Apple Foldable

Australians don’t mind shelling out the cash for a new smartphone, according to new research from Telsyte more than half of all smartphones sold in Australia before July were premium devices worth over $1,000.

According to Telsyte’s Australian Smartphone & Wearable Devices Market Study 2026, 3,870,000 smartphones were sold in the first half of the year, a small jump on 2025.

What’s interesting is the growth in this premium range, despite the continued claims of “cost of living pressure” in the community, that segment added 10 percentage points in the last two years.

25% of phones sold were over $2,000 but the data doesn’t separate out the outright vs payment plan purchases which we would assume would show a high use of plans at the ultra-premium level.

In the battle of the brands, Australians are loving Apple, with a 49.5% share of sales, just shy of parity with Android.

The forecasts are for Australia to hit 8.4 million smartphone sales in the year, down on last year likely thanks to the newly introduced price rises from the memory shortage impacting buying decisions.

Overall, the report shows our average replacement cycle time to be 3.4 years, down from 3.9 just two and a half years ago.

With the foldable category in the eyes of the market, Samsung, Motorola, Oppo, Google, Honor and others are yet to cross mainstream with their sales, Telsyte pointing to an Apple Foldable being a likely strong catalyst for the category going forward.

One third of iPhone users say they would consider an Apple foldable, and if you look at just the “Pro” series Apple iPhone users that jumps to almost half.

As for price, we’re yet to see how that will land, but one in six of those Pro users are willing to pay over $3,000 for the elusive yet to be announced iPhone Ultra (Fold).

“Despite the potential lofty prices, a new foldable iPhone could finally propel the category into the mainstream,” Telsyte principal analyst Foad Fadaghi says.

All eyes will be on Apple in the next week, as we expect to get news on the event next week, in 2024 and 2025, Apple announced their “September Event” on August 27.