Analyst Says Apple (AAPL) Foldable Phone Won’t ‘Move The Needle’

We recently published Top 10 Trending Stock Ratings and Calls as Tom Lee Says Latest Selloff is a Buying Opportunity. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the top trending stock ratings and calls.

Edison Lee, Jefferies analyst, said in a latest program on CNBC that Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) much-awaited foldable phone would not be enough for the company to “move the needle.” The analyst recently downgraded Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) to sell and said the market’s expectations about an upgrade cycle are too high.

“The smartphone industry—not just Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), but also the Android players—is facing a serious structural slowdown because there are no truly innovative features that current phones can’t already perform. Most improvements are incremental. The foldable next year is exciting for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), but it is not a brand-new form factor; it has been around for several years. Looking at Samsung’s latest foldable, the Galaxy F7, which is priced at $2,000, it’s a very nice phone, but volumes are unlikely to exceed 3 million units. The iPhone could potentially sell three times that due to its high-end, loyal customer base, but even so, it probably won’t be enough to significantly move the needle.”

Photo by Sable Flow on Unsplash

Early indicators point to a strong consumer response to the latest iPhone 17. However, can this enthusiasm lift the stock in the long term, especially when the company is falling behind in the AI race?

Apple can only do so much in innovation to revolutionize its iPhone each year. A UBS survey shows that the iPhone upgrade cycle has reached 35 months in the US. A separate report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says about 63% of iPhone users keep their smartphones for more than two years. Apple is losing its pricing edge as it has to put a cap on its price tags to compete in key markets like China. Samsung, Xiaomi and other companies can launch advanced hardware and software features to compete with Apple and keep the company under pressure in Asia.

Columbia Threadneedle Global Technology Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Finally, shares of technology bellwether Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) underperformed the market and lost value as the company faced a classic innovator’s dilemma, which appeared all the more egregious as competitors embraced the AI opportunity. Apple has had a dominant market position in smartphones and services, but now more than ever, investors are questioning the future outlook for the company. Despite posting a negative absolute strategy return during the quarter, which weighed on absolute strategy returns, relative to Apple’s the company’s large position in the benchmark our underweight position proved to be a tailwind to relative results during the quarter.”

While we acknowledge the risk and potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.