The numbers came in hard for Apple shareholders Monday. AAPL lost 1.53% in the regular session and shed a further 0.23% overnight after Jefferies analyst Edison Lee and colleagues published a note telling clients that 'our supply chain checks suggest that the all-glass iPhone [scheduled for launch in September 2027] has been canceled.'
The Jefferies team called it 'a major setback to efforts to bring in higher-priced iPhones amid soaring memory costs' and reduced their earnings estimates accordingly. Their model had priced the device at $2,060 — and assumed that its premium design, if extended across the broader iPhone lineup, would have lifted average selling prices and margins across the board.
'The foldable iPhone will now be the only key driver of higher [average sales price] and margin,' the analysts said.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman offered a partial rebuttal. Sources told the Apple-focused reporter that the company still intends to launch a 'glass-centric' version of the phone in 2027. The distinction matters: 'all-glass' and 'glass-centric' are not the same product. According to Gurman, the new devices — known internally as V73 and V74 — 'will make use of a new glassy look,' with glass on the front and back curving into the sides and a metal band in the middle.
But Gurman also confirmed the core of the Jefferies finding. 'A more aspirational version championed by Apple's design studio used even more glass, instead of metal, but was scrapped early on,' he reported. The company encountered structural problems connecting the glass panels and could not make the design work at large production volumes.
The cancellation lands at a delicate moment. Apple is mid-transition, moving from longtime CEO Tim Cook to incoming chief executive John Ternus. Investors had been watching the product pipeline for signals that Ternus would push the brand into higher price tiers — a strategy that would expand margins without requiring unit-volume growth. The all-glass iPhone was the clearest expression of that ambition. Its removal narrows the near-term path to premium pricing.
Elsewhere in the market, the broader earnings picture remains strong. With 90% of S&P 500 companies having reported Q2 results, 76% beat earnings-per-share expectations, according to Savita Subramanian and Victoria Roloff at Bank of America. 'All signs point to another exceptionally strong earnings season,' they said. Bob Edwards, CIO of Edwards Asset Management — which manages $3 billion — forecast the S&P 500 will reach 8,080 by year-end, driven by healthy sector rotation and 'rolling corrections' in overbought areas including the Magnificent Seven and semiconductors.
CEO Times take: Apple's margin story has always rested on its ability to charge more for hardware that consumers treat as a status object. Canceling the flagship premium device — the one priced at $2,060 — is not a rounding error; it is a strategic retreat. Free enterprise rewards companies that deliver on product promises, and the market priced that retreat within hours. Ternus inherits a company with formidable cash generation and a loyal installed base, but the first test of his tenure is already on the board: restore investor confidence that Apple can still command a premium, or watch the multiple compress. Capital does not wait for internal design committees to solve glass-panel adhesion problems.
