We’re seeing more foldable rumors, including from Apple, but Apple’s history and the current market suggest an iPhone Flip is not a sure thing.
Recently, we’ve seen new leaks of a Google Pixel Fold. Since there isn’t much to talk about with phones, we talk about phones that fold. We’ve heard rumors of foldable phones from Apple and Google every year, ever since Samsung stepped up its commitment with a family of Galaxy Z foldables. This doesn’t mean anyone should place bets on an iPhone Flip phone from Apple.
Rumors of an Apple foldable are heating up. Behind closed doors, a representative from Samsung Mobile Experience was heard saying that Samsung expects Apple to launch a foldable iPad device within two years, by 2024.
Samsung is also rumored to be producing the folding screen for a folding Google Pixel phone. It would therefore seem that comments from Samsung on Apple’s foldable plans could be considered gospel truth, but these are effectively two different Samsungs.
Samsung Display is owned by the Samsung Group, but it operates with an informational firewall between itself and other entities. This is precisely because it can sell displays to Samsung Mobile as well as Google’s Pixel group.
If Samsung Mobile knew everything about Samsung Display sales, it would have an obvious intelligence advantage over competitors. The executive speculating about a foldable iPad was from the Mobile group, not Samsung Display. He likely has excellent guesswork, but not hard facts.
Of course, Apple is presumably working on a folding tablet. Probably it also has a folding phone, and maybe even a folding watch. Why not? It’s one thing to make a one-off example of technology in-house. It’s another to launch a new device into the global market and supply chain.
The Samsung comments likely just mean that Apple could have a foldable iPad ready as early as 2024. Whether it would actually launch and sell such a device is another story.
Of course, it needs to improve something, anything at all, to keep selling new devices. Every year there must be an update that justifies the new product. We’re not sure folding screens will be the update Apple picks.
There isn’t much more you can improve on a phone right now. New phone technology can’t sneak up on us easily. When new camera capabilities hit the market, we hear about them first from Qualcomm, which makes the image signal processors, or Sony, which makes the image sensors.
