According to uber-analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is testing a device with a 9-inch foldable display, but the company’s long-rumored foldable iPhone is unlikely to launch until 2025 or later.
Hartley Charlton for MacRumors:
On Twitter, Kuo said that Apple is “actively testing” a device with a 9-inch foldable OLED display and a PPI somewhere between the iPhone and the iPad. This device is purportedly being used to evaluate and verify the key technologies involved in Apple’s foldable, and may not feature the specifications of any final retail product.
Kuo also revised his prediction from last year that claimed that Apple will launch its foldable iPhone as soon as 2024, explaining that it is now clear that this prediction needs to be revised to 2025 at the earliest. He added that Apple’s first foldable device may be a hybrid iPhone and iPad, or simply a foldable iPad.
I expected Apple to launch a foldable iPhone as soon as 2024 in my reports last year, but now it's clear this prediction needs to be revised. I predict Apple may launch its first foldable product in 2025 at the earliest, which may be a foldable iPad or a hybrid of iPad & iPhone. https://t.co/HGIDPFvdar
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) April 1, 2022
MacDailyNews Take: No rush, but, when it’s ready, bring it on!
As with fingerprint and facial recognition, when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, then foldable smartphones will have been done right. — MacDailyNews, January 17, 2019
We’ll see a mess of weird attempts before Apple shows how it’s to be done, as usual. — MacDailyNews, January 23, 2019
If and when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, they’ll be showing the world how it should be done and what to copy going forward. As usual. — MacDailyNews, February 27, 2019
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It’s one of those engineer-driven ideas that’s not practical in the non-geek world. Apple usually avoids. Even if Apple devises a way to make it durable yet foldable, it’s not great after being cool for the first ten minutes.
Apple likes thinness. A folding phone needs to be double thickness, by design. Apple likes minimizing moving parts, even the useful and intuitive Home Button. A folding phone needs a complex hinge and a screen that folds and unfolds repeatedly. Apple likes simple usability. A folding phone must be unfolded to use each time and putting a separate screen on the “outside” just makes it bigger, heavier, and more power-hunger. Unnecessary complexity.
Doesn’t have to be a phone, just a more portable iPad.
More portable? Are humans incapable of porting around iPads as they are?
Let’s keep the durability and cost within reason instead of trying to use a display as a hinge.
If Apple wanted to be real innovative, add a couple useful ports, affordable local storage, a real file system, and the ability to actually do something offline.
In my comment, wherever I say “phone,” add “or tablet.” My points apply whether this hypothetical device is meant to be an iPhone or iPad.
Having seen the latest Microsoft and Samsung devices tested on tv I was shocked how poor they still are and how some specs are reduced to clearly keep prices down, so even Apple will be a while yet perfecting them I reckon to a quality required to take them beyond gimmickry.
Apple engineers are not like Samsung engineers. Samsung engineers slap us in the face with unfinished products that then get cancelled. Remember the VR headset? The “in the air” gesture controls? Samsung is happy to slap us in the face. Repeatedly.
Maybe apple is testing prototypes but it doesn’t mean they really have the intention of producing a foldable product. I can’t imagine a foldable from apple. The won’t sell something that doesn’t really have a useful purpose, other than being just a gimmick
Sometimes the right answer is no.
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.