[Digital Today reporter Kyung-min Hong (홍경민)] Apple is expected to launch a wave of top-tier high-end products across categories this fall, including an Apple Watch Ultra 4 with a comprehensive design overhaul and stronger sensors. It is also expected to introduce the brand’s first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Ultra, which aims to eliminate screen creases.

On May 18, local time, IT media outlet 9to5Mac, citing DigiTimes and Weibo sources, reported that Apple plans to fully expand its top flagship Ultra brand with the goal of launching this fall. It said the company aims to maximise its grip on the premium market.

The first product with specific specifications to emerge is the Apple Watch Ultra 4, Apple’s flagship premium smartwatch line. According to a recent DigiTimes report, the new Apple Watch Ultra 4 is expected to enter the market after a sweeping design redesign that completely breaks from its predecessor’s framework. On the back of the external overhaul, optimistic forecasts have also emerged among market experts that shipments of this year’s new model will rise sharply by about 20 to 30 percent from last year.

Along with the bold changes to its look, performance of the internal sensors that detect physical signs is also set for a major upgrade beyond existing limits. The Apple Watch Ultra 4 is expected to include internal detection sensors with improved accuracy and functions packed at roughly twice the density of current models, maximising healthcare features. Taiwan’s TASC, a key sensor partner that exclusively supplies related parts to Apple, is also expected to wield significant influence.

Amid this generational shift in smartwatches, Apple’s first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Ultra, which had remained under wraps, has recently entered a full-fledged test production phase and is finally taking shape. According to IT source Instant Digital, Apple achieved a landmark technological breakthrough in recent prototype testing by completely solving the screen-crease issue, long seen as a chronic weakness of foldable displays. According to leaked information, the display was ultimately proven to maintain a visually crease-free state with no noticeable creases even during long-term use, along with long-term screen stability.

Despite the success in screen technology, the iPhone Ultra has run into an unexpectedly serious quality hurdle in the durability of the hinge, a key component that folds and unfolds the device. In harsh, high-frequency repeated opening-and-closing reliability tests conducted over an extended period, the hinge component repeatedly failed to meet Apple’s stringent quality control standards, and disruptions in the actual manufacturing process were also reported. Some have raised the possibility of a delay in the launch schedule, but Instant Digital, in follow-up reporting, again stressed that the iPhone Ultra is being developed smoothly with a goal of being unveiled in September.

Apple’s broader Ultra shift is also expected to extend beyond mobile and wearable devices to PCs and computer processors more broadly. The industry is widely predicting the possibility of a simultaneous debut of a MacBook Ultra laptop lineup and AirPods Ultra aimed at the wireless earphone market to accelerate hardware innovation. A professional high-performance desktop Mac Studio using a next-generation high-performance M5 Ultra processor is also seen as certain to launch, which is expected to complete an ultra-expensive premium lineup across categories to spur stalled IT demand.