Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - September 11th, 2026

Carol Massar (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

SPEAKER_2 (0:08)

This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead, with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy, plus global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

Carol Massar (0:31)

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Bloomberg Businessweek weekend podcast. A holiday-shortened trading week, but it was a busy week, and September certainly seemed to kick into high gear. We had a big Apple product announcement, the foldable phone from Apple iPhone Duo. It is here and super important to also this past week, inflation reports that got the attention of investors ahead of this coming week's meeting and decision by the Federal Reserve.

And let's not forget, US-Canada trade tensions intensifying, and the US war with Iran continued with no signs of backing down. That, by the way, driving the price of Brent crude to spike big time.

Tim Stenovec (1:10)

It's the beginning of September and Friday marked 25 years since the September 11th terror attacks. More on that this hour with a man who was at the Pentagon, the day that tragedy struck. We also mentioned Apple just a moment ago. Yes, indeed, all eyes on Cupertino and the debut of Apple's first foldable iPhone. Unfolding all of the details, Bloomberg's managing editor for Global Consumer Tech and our Apple guru, Mark Gurman.

Carol Massar (1:35)

Plus, renowned financial journalist and best-selling author Bill Cohen charts the rise and fall of Wall Street billionaire Leon Black and the firm he founded, Apollo Global Management. It's all in Bill Cohen's new book.

Tim Stenovec (1:46)

All that to come, we begin, though, with the debut of Apple's first foldable phone. It's called the iPhone Duo. Unveiled during a wide-ranging event out there in California, this is Apple's betting that a new category can energize growth for its biggest selling lineup. That new phone starts at about $2,000 for 256 gigs of storage. It goes up to $3,200 for a 2 terabyte version. The event also the first that John Ternes has presided over as Apple's CEO.

Carol Massar (2:17)

Together with the new lineups of Apple Watch and AirPods, these products will help people create, communicate, and be more productive and entertained, while staying healthy and active in ways that are more personal and intelligent than ever. They represent the very best of Apple, the curiosity to imagine what's possible, the care to get every detail right, and the conviction to build products that make a real difference in people's lives.

Tim Stenovec (2:41)

That was Apple CEO John Ternes. For more, we caught up with our in-house Apple whisperer, Bloomberg's managing editor for global consumer tech Mark Gurman, who we should note correctly reported months ago, what was coming from Apple when it comes to AI, Siri, its foldable phone, and more.

Mark Gurman (2:57)

I think they blew us away with the way the software and the hardware integrate, just the way the phone opens and it's consistent from the front screen to the inner screen, the way they have the photo mode working, using it as a live photo viewer, this kids mode. So on one screen, you can show your kids some things to get them to focus on taking a shot of them. By the way, they copied that from Google, neither here nor there, but it's cool, it's expensive, $2,000, goes up to $3,200 at a 2TB configuration. The colors look slick. I think it's going to do very well. They're going to sell every model they can make when this comes out in a few weeks. Also there's the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, pretty minor updates, but nice things. The new colors, the black, is going to be very popular. I think the burgundy, I'm going to start calling it Cartier Burgundy, like everyone was calling last year's phone, or Mez Orange.

Then you've got the AirPods 5, super minor update, great price though on the higher end config, 150 bucks for an extra hour of battery life, wireless charging case, and you can swipe your finger on there. What that does is it raises the bar for the AirPods Pro at $250 because it's like a baby AirPods Pro at this point.

And then the other thing was the Apple Watch, super minor updates, pretty disappointing, new silicon, new health features, not a ton there to write about, but next year and the year after will be bigger changes.

Carol Massar (4:26)

Wait, did I miss? So wait, the battery for the new iPhone Duo and the camera, how are they?

Mark Gurman (4:35)