A report yesterday suggested that we may be seeing a succession of Apple Ultra products, including the upcoming folding iPhone and an M6-powered MacBook. So far, of course, we’ve only seen the branding used for an Apple Watch.
It may potentially be pointing to a new tier of Apple products across almost the company’s entire range of devices, and to me that would make sense for both the company and its customers …
The first indication of this was the rumored branding of the company’s upcoming foldable iPhone. The placeholder name we’ve all been using for the device was the iPhone Fold, but a leaker suggested that Apple will actually brand it as the iPhone Ultra.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman was the first to suggest the branding a couple of months ago, with Digital Chat Station also reported having heard the same rumor in respect of the folding iPhone. This was subsequently backed by another leaker, Instant Digital.
None of this makes it certain, as sometimes leakers hear rumors from the same sources and other times will post based in part on previous reporting. At this point, however, it does appear more likely than not.
We’ve long been expecting the upcoming M6 MacBook Pro to have both an OLED screen and a complete redesign with a sleeker form factor. However, a Macworld report said that Apple will be bringing the Ultra branding to the Mac as well.
That appears to suggest that the redesigned MacBook will be branded as the MacBook Ultra – and that would be consistent with Gurman’s view that the Ultra branding won’t be limited to the folding iPhone.
Steve Jobs famously returned to Apple, described its complicated array of different Macs as a mess and said he wanted a two-by-two grid of laptop and desktop, consumer and professional.
While he was absolutely right to simplify the company’s product range, I do think there is now room for more nuance than just a 2×2 grid, and Apple has been experimenting with different ways to diversify its model lineup.
With iPhone in particular, adding a new model to the base and Pro has been a process of trial and error. We’ve had the iPhone mini, the iPhone Plus, the SE range later branded as just the e, and most recently the iPhone 17 Air.
Apple hasn’t yet found the perfect extra model, but I do think the iPhone Air is headed in the right direction. That might seem a surprising statement to make given that the model doesn’t appear to have been an overnight success, but I suspect this is because it’s a little too compromised. The two issues most people have with it have been the limited battery life and the single camera. Fix those, and it becomes a much more viable product.
The MacBook Neo, in contrast, has clearly been a huge success. Apple got this one right at its first attempt, and it will now be interesting to see how a future MacBook Air is more strongly differentiated.
At first glance, the name Ultra would seem to indicate the most capable model in a line-up. That’s the case for the Apple Watch, for example, and a MacBook lineup might look like this:
However, that isn’t the only possibility I see here. Given that the model we were previously expecting to be see branded as the M6 MacBook Pro is set to be slimmer than existing models, that may suggest that it may be more thermally limited and therefore not as powerful as it would be with an M6 chip in the existing chassis.
It may be the case that there is a market segment that wants the most powerful possible MacBook and is willing to accept a relatively thick and heavy form factor, while there is a different one who wants a capable machine but gives more priority to sleekness. That might mean that, in performance terms (but not price!), the line-up would be:
In this case, ultra would represent the ultimate combination of sleekness and power rather than raw performance.
I do think that the iPhone Ultra branding reports tend to support that view. If you want the best camera capabilities and perhaps the best performance, you’ll buy the iPhone 18 Pro/Pro Max. If you want the most impressive form factor, you’ll buy the iPhone Ultra.
For Apple, it would be giving more people a reason to step up to a more expensive model.
The company has made previous attempts at this. The 12-inch MacBook was a relatively basic machine in terms of its capabilities, housed in a very sexy case. The iPhone 17 Air is similar in concept. The lessons from both appear to be that people love the aesthetics but aren’t willing to compromise on capabilities to quite that degree.
The iPhone Ultra will appeal to those who want a larger screen, but I suspect even more so to those who just want a really impressive form factor. Those who want the ultimate capabilities in terms of both cameras and perhaps performance will still buy the iPhone 13 Pro. Two distinct markets, both willing to pay a price premium for different reasons.
In the MacBook line-up, it could well appeal to those who like the sleekness of the MacBook Air but would be willing to pay for a more powerful machine if they didn’t have to sacrifice too much of the portability.
Maybe too this is where the folding iPad will fit. It won’t necessarily be the most powerful model, but it will be a really impressive form factor.
For Apple then, it gives more people a reason to pay more money. For customers, it gives us more options. Sure, we don’t want to return to the mess that Steve had to fix, but I do think there is room for an additional model in most of Apple’s product lineups.
What’s your view? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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