Uber-analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today in a note to investors that Apple is working to launch an 8-inch foldable iPhone featuring a QHD+ flexible OLED display in 2023.
Kuo predicts that foldable smartphones will become a “must-have” for all major smartphone brands and will boost the next “super replacement cycle” for high-end models, and he believes Apple is well positioned to be the “biggest winner” in the foldable device trend. Apple will ship 15 to 20 million foldable iPhones in 2023, according to Kuo.
Based on our latest industry survey, we forecast that Apple will likely launch a foldable iPhone with an 8-inch QHD+ flexible OLED display in 2023, with SDC as the exclusive display supplier and Samsung Foundry as the exclusive DDI foundry provider. Based on Apple’s requested capacity plan, we predict that the foldable iPhone shipments will reach 15-20 million units in 2023. We expect that the foldable iPhone will adopt TPK’s silver nanowire touch solution because of its several advantages over SDC’s Y-Octa technology…
Future foldable devices will require touch technology that supports multiple folds (vs. only a single fold in current foldable smartphones), rollable, medium to large size display, and durability. When comparing the advantages of the above specifications, the silver nanowire is similar or superior to SDC’s Y-Octa. — [Ming-Chi Kuo]
Kuo says that Apple is already using silver nanowire for the touch interface of the HomePod, allowing Apple to “master the technology” at a lower cost using small volume production.
MacDailyNews Take: And, with Apple’s move to Apple Silicon across all devices, the possibility of a foldable device with the power of a Mac is very, very real.