Bob Iger on Potential Apple Merger

Welcome to ninety five Mac Daily for Thursday, june twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. I'm your host, Chance Miller We are sponsored this week by Roboock Leading off today, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that price increases are unavoidable for Apple products But a new analyst report today offers good news for prospective iPhone eighteen Pro buyers A few days ago, we talked about a report from the Wall Street Journal that estimated iPhone eighteen Pro could start at nearly one thousand four hundred dollars More recently, however, analysts at JP Morgan Chase have offered a more optimistic take on the situation. Those analysts believe that the iPhone eighteen Pro could increase by between fifty dollars and one hundred dollars in price when it launches this fall compared to the iPhone seventeen Pro The thinking is that while Apple will have to pay significantly more for RAM and storage It can make up some of that increase by getting lower rates on other components The iPhone eighteen Pro is also expected to switch from aQualc cellular modem to Apple's own in house modem which will also lower the bill of materials for the iPhone eighteen P If this JP Morgan analysis comes to fruition, then the iPhone eighteen Pro would start at somewhere between eleven forty nine and eleven ninety nine cents. while the iPhone eighteen Pro Max would start somewhere around twelve forty nine c to twelve ninety nine cents Next up today, the other new iPhone model coming this fall is of course the iPhone Ultra. This will be Apple's first foldable iPhone And Apple appears to be pressing ahead with manufacturing Based on new reporting today, talk of a delayed launch for the upcoming iPhone Ultra seems to have faded away with Apple solving a key problem The new supply chain report says that earlier issues with the three D printed hinge module for the iPhone Ultra have now been resolved. and the device is entering the next stage of production previously been reported that Apple was concerned about the durability of the iPhone foold's hinge a problem that has affected other foldable smartphones on the market from Android manufacturers In fact, it was widely reported that Apple's two must hves for the iPhone fold durable hinge and a crease free display Apple already solved the crerease free display problem, and now it seems to have also solved that hinge problem Today's supply chain report says that there was initially problems with this hinge design in the early development process. After repeated folding and unfolding, the hinge would reportedly start to make a slight noise each time There were also consistency issues in the early production stage of these hinge designs Quality issues would have been particularly concerning for Apple, given that it's waited so long before entering the foldables market becausecause it wanted to ensure that issues experienced with those competing models would not affect the iPhone Ultra So with that in mind, this supply chain report says that Apple and its production partners have solved the problems with the device's hinge. The device is now said to have entered test production, which is the final check that everything goes smoothly before actual mass production begins With all of this in mind, there appears now to be a clear consensus that the iPhone ultra or the iPhone fold will be announced in September and go on sale shortly thereafter spponsored this week by Roba Rock If you're looking to upgrade your cleaning routine for prrime day, now is a great time Roborock is offering limited time deals across its lineup of robot vacuums and wet dry vacuums with savings of up to one thousand five hundred dollars That includes Roborx's popular Sorrows tenX R at its lowest price yet as well as its latest Q Revo Edge two models There are also budget friendly options, starting at just two hundred and fifty dollars To learn more and take advantage of these prrime dayay deals from Marbaroak, hit the link in the show notes My thanks to RoboRock for sponsoring nine to five Mac Daily In other newews today, Disney's former CEO Bob Eiger is the subject of a new profile at the Financial Times in which he shares new quotes about the long discussed idea of Apple and Disney merging Now that Eiger, who was Disney's CEO twice, has officially wrapped up his time at the company He's ready to publicly reflect on his legacy In this interview with The Financial Times, he talks a lot about Disney's acquisitions and mergers. That includes Disney's highly successful acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucas Film and the more controversial twenty first century Fx deal. The interview also touches on IGer's interest in technology For example, a near acquisition of Twitter for Disney fell apart when Eiger got cold feet over the potential distraction it could be for the company But the bigger deal, of course, is a potential Disney and Apple merger. Eiger said in this interview that he thinks this would have been, quote truly transformational and equal. He said, quote We talked about it internally and we had some conversations with Apple about it, but it never went anywhere When asked why that deal never came to fruition, Eiger said, quote, Apple didn't show that much interest. end quote This isn't the first time that Eiger has talked about a potential Disney and Apple merger In fact, he wrote in his twenty nineteen memoir that he believed Apple and Disney would have joined if Steve Jobs were still alive. At the time, he wrote quote, I believe that if Steve were still alive, we would have combined our companies or at the least discussed the possibility very seriously. end quote The idea of Apple and Disney merging has surfaced numerous times over the years. but usually only from analysts outside of both companies. Eiger's comments in recent years, however, do seem to indicate that there were at least some conversations behind the scenes even if they were very preliminary and never actually led to real negotiations another episode of Nine to five Mack Daily As always, you can find all of the latest Apple newews on nine to fiveMac. com. Follow along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller And we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of Night to fiveive Mac Daily