Ultra may turn into Apple's most ambitious product line yet.
Mark Gurman reported in March that Apple is planning three Ultra products this year. iPhone Ultra is the foldable, Apple's first phone with a folding screen, rumored at around $2,000. MacBook Ultra is the first Mac with a touchscreen and OLED display, sitting above the MacBook Pro. AirPods Ultra are the first earbuds with infrared cameras, priced above the $249 AirPods Pro.
Apple already has an Ultra template. Apple Watch Ultra 3 launched last September at $799 with 42 hours of battery life and satellite connectivity for emergencies off the grid. The standard Watch doesn't do any of that. Ultra didn't replace it. It went somewhere the standard Watch was never designed to go.
iPhone Ultra tests whether people will buy a foldable Apple product. MacBook Ultra tests whether people want to touch their Mac screen. AirPods Ultra tests whether earbuds can be a sensing platform, not just an audio one.
If all three ship this year, Apple will have planted a flag at the edge of three different categories at once.