Apple's First Foldable Device Won't Be an iPhone, Say Supply Chain Sources

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

The other day I saw a laptop with a regular keyboard and foldable displays; when it's close, it works like a tablet, but when you open and unfold it becomes a laptop with an additional display on top.

EDIT: Found it:

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review: Dual-screen done right

One device with many functions

www.tomsguide.com

Too bad it only runs Windows... what a waste.


It's called Yoga, and actually it's two displays with a folio-type keyboard, and a case that can 'bend' in different shapes... very odd. I was expecting better.
We'll need to wait and see what Apple will bring to the table.

FWIW, they do make some neat laptops.
I had a Yoga Slim 7i and it was an aluminum body, had a glass-topped trackpad, a high-res display, a really nice keyboard, was lightweight... the closest I've ever gotten to a MacBook Air in Windows land.

 

[dasmb]

Any foldable device that isn't a wearable is just a novelty. It forces engineering tradeoffs and operational headaches but adds no real functionality.

Consider: you can get twice the physical screen area with twice the weight and twice the thickness for roughly twice the price. There's a lot more failure modes and therefore a lower life expectancy and screen quality is worse even before continuous operation leaves a crease in it.

 

[3xBoom]

Apple, you dont have to follow the trend and make it better...if something is nonsense and fragile already, focus on something else

Your post is so much better when hummed as a "hey jude" rendition...

 

[spinedoc77]

No company, not even Apple, is going to be able to overcome physics and what happens when any material is folded (and unfolded over and over). Regardless of how thin a clear glass or plastic is, when you fold or bend a screen, you’re pulling / stretching on the outside of the material, while compressing it on the inside within the fold area. These opposing stresses eventually will cause the material to fail. It’s also why you see the indented fold on current folding screen devices. The expansion and contraction differences between the two sides of the screen have to be accounted for somehow, not to mention needing to maintain a sufficient radius of the fold to keep the materials from splitting in two.

That's why Samsung foldables are rated for 200,000 folds, and newer technology like the OnePlus Open is rated for 1 million folds. Let's see, a phone addict (like myself) and a bit of exaggeration; 50 folds per day = 12 years of folds on Samsung and 60 years on OnePlus. Newer phones have also almost fully eliminated the crease by using a waterdrop hinge, although it's still not 100% gone yet it's pretty much invisible unless turned off and turned to almost exactly the right angle. But then again we can say the same thing with any moving part. Is Apple going to overcome the physics of using hinges on their laptops?

With that said I can 100% understand why Apple is waiting, they want a totally smooth, fully glass like display from edge to edge. I can't say I blame them and am myself looking forward to such a device. But in the meantime I'm certainly not waiting years for that to come about, I'm enjoying my nice huge screen today.

 

[Marty80]

Such a loss a majority of users prefer foldable phones. I still miss older foldables like nokia’s 9200 series

 

[spinedoc77]

Any foldable device that isn't a wearable is just a novelty. It forces engineering tradeoffs and operational headaches but adds no real functionality.

Consider: you can get twice the physical screen area with twice the weight and twice the thickness for roughly twice the price. There's a lot more failure modes and therefore a lower life expectancy and screen quality is worse even before continuous operation leaves a crease in it.

This isn't accurate at all. Foldables haven't been twice the thickness or weight for a long time now, I'm not even sure they EVER were but I'm too lazy to look up the specs. Today's foldables are only a few mm thicker and a few grams heavier than an iPhone pro max.

iPhone 15 pro max: Weight 221 grams, Depth 8.25mm. OnePlus Open: Weight 239 grams, Depth (folded closed) 11.7mm. BTW there are even thinner and lighter foldables, but they are not available in the west so I won't use those specs, but the technology is certainly there. Edit: I'm also not seeing twice the price when putting flagship vs flagship, iPhone 15 pro max $1199, OnePlus Open $1699. I think our definitions of "twice" may slightly differ.

Novelty you say? Engineering tradeoffs? Everything has its pros and cons. I can say the iPhone is an engineering tradeoff because the screen doesn't fold and is exposed to more damage from the outside. I haven't seen any proof that there are more failure modes or a lower life expectancy, but then I would expect those comments to also be outdated and possibly referring to earlier generations. What comes to mind is that JerryRigEverything video where with moderate finger pressure he shatters the back glass of an iPhone 15, but using all his strength in another video can't even slightly bend the Z Fold 5.

 

[BornAgainMac]

The photo looks like my angry brother broke it out of frustration of not working with some old 32-bit app he wanted to use.

 

[ossifer]

Surely it's the Apple Watch, because these things are already too wide and not thick enough. Especially the Ultra.

 

[piatigorsky]

I think they mean foldable-display devices. Apple already has foldable devices.

Yep, the corresponding original Chinese article only reads "foldable", but from the context it's evident that it means "foldable display."

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

Apple, you dont have to follow the trend and make it better...if something is nonsense and fragile already, focus on something else

Yeah, like VP...

 

[picpicmac]

Surely it's the Apple Watch

Or... maybe there will be a physical Apple Wallet, a folding wallet that is a smartwallet, in which one can still put some physical items but is "smart".

 

[ninethirty]

Foldable phones are a solution in search of a problem. Apple knows that.

 

[eifelbube]

Apple is now deciding on the design of its first foldable device as work on the project ramps up, DigiTimes reports.
…
Article Link: Apple's First Foldable Device Won't Be an iPhone, Say Supply Chain Sources

I think Apple will consider it for the iPhone and base its decision on the evolutionary path of increasing screen size. After the dimension reaches 7.9 inches with the iPhone 20 SuperMax in 2028, the 2029 lineup will include a foldable option, the iPhone 21 FlexMax …

 

[matrix07]

I actually do want a foldable PHONE since 70% of the time I am fine with the current size but for media consumption it would be great to fold it out. Starting with a tablet goes in the wrong direction in my opinion. A tablet isn’t something I expect to carry in my pants pockets and I never thought „damn! I wish that tablet was smaller!“ like ??? That’s why I got a tablet no?

Foldable phone will be 2X thicker so you'll get one benefit but one draw back.

A tablet making sense because we all used to that form: a book, a pocket book, a planner etc. and 2X thickness won't be a problem since you won't carry it with you all the time.

 

[3rdiguy]

iPad Mini is a good start

 

[Crow_Servo]

Prediction: One year from now, there will be rumors of a delay to 2026 at the earliest. We’ve gone down this road before…

 

[Wanted797]

Interesting. How did your touch typing not drift left/right/up/down without a lot of looking to correct and no buttons to feel?

Even with an actual keyboard, my touch typing can drift. I would guess you used an arm rest to basically lock your hands in a very specific spot to keep them directly over the keys. Else, you had to look a LOT to correct drift?

On a physical keyboard I use the little nubs on F and J.

I’ve never had drift as an issue during typing. Only when I first setup. Once I align my hands they don’t move.

On the iPad I mad more typos but autocorrect usually caught them.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Maybe it’s just me, but since I left the workforce in 2017 (4 dialysis) I haven’t followed materials science much (at all), so I don’t know what type of metals, plastics, glasses and fabrication technologies have arrived or how the fields have advanced.

Following Apple’s development of a foldable ‘device’, whatever that device happens to be, doesn’t costs me anythign except a bit of time. Maybe I’ll see it when it arrives and think ‘it’s a POS’. On the other hand, maybe it’s gonna sing out to me and I’ll want one just by seeing it, what it is and what I think I can do with it.

I remember when Jobs pulled the first Macbook Air out of an envelope and thought ‘I want one, I need one, I will buy one’. Have gone through several MBA’s and currently I have an M1 with a 1 TB drive and 16gb ram. Sure I am looking for my next ‘I want, need, will buy’. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing.

My 3rd gen 12.9 IPP is getting long in the tooth, having sported a diagonal crack since the day after purchase. A 12.9 iPad Air will be a justified purchase, getting daily use. I may or may not have the screen on the IPP replaced and then give it to my sister or I may keep it as is. I’m not convinced on the Vision headset just yet. Not being convinced also doesn’t cost me anything

For me, a foldable IPP, with ywice the screen area when unfolded would be a wow, must have, want, need purchase assuming that the folding aspect of the tech works out. I’m not deluding myself - I just hope it works out, and why not? If I want it and can afford it, I’m not raining on anyone’s parade.

I still encounter people who are blown away by the fact that I can write on an iPad, and then I hand them the pencil and say ‘go for it, write your name, draw a stick figure, do some math equations’ And you can see the magic when it just ‘clicks’ in some people.

I had such a moment when I bought my first Apple Watch, only in December, 2023 and bought an app called Just Press Record. I use it to take down complicated instructions when in dialysis and the transcribed notes are waiting for me when I get home, ready to be printed out.

So yeah. I’m hoping for magic. Hoping doesn’t cost me anything.

Tom

 

[JungeQuex]

Ok so the industry is selling us on a concept that they moved away from two decades ago when every phone was foldable. Foldable phones were great but not because they folded. They were great because you could chuck them against the wall and they'd survive. They had battery life that was measured in weeks depending on your battery size.

So today's Tech Genius Trillionaire companies want to bring back folding device that will be missing battery life that lasts over a week and the durability. So they're hyping the least desired feature of those yesteryear phones.

I'm enjoying watching Tech companies flail at finding the next big thing. Until then I'll watch in amusement how they throw every lukewarm technology up against the wall and hope something sticks.

This. Every subsequent product that comes out like this is more of a hard sell than the last.

 

[svish]

Might be a foldable iPad. Expecting Apple to price it at $1999 at least when it launches.

 

[Black Tiger]

A solution looking for a problem. Maybe I’m missing something, but what is the point? To make it smaller when it’s in your pocket? To make it slower to answer the phone when it rings? To add a moveable, breakable part to a device when Apple has spent the last 20 years removing movable, breakable parts? I can’t see this ever happening.

 

[Black Tiger]

Why apple should have first foldable device.
MacBook is always foldable.

Difference is the MacBook folds for a reason. What we are discussing is things that fold for no other reason than to be a gimmick.

 

[Black Tiger]

Let their first crack at foldable screen be an iPad. Not like they're doing much on that front after putting M series chips in there.

Would be cool for the next model of iPad mini to be foldable to truly make it "mini".

Where is the logic in making an inferior folding screen so that it’s less capable in use but more usable when it’s being stored?

Any foldable device that isn't a wearable is just a novelty. It forces engineering tradeoffs and operational headaches but adds no real functionality.

Consider: you can get twice the physical screen area with twice the weight and twice the thickness for roughly twice the price. There's a lot more failure modes and therefore a lower life expectancy and screen quality is worse even before continuous operation leaves a crease in it.

exactly. I don’t see the point in making a device that is compromised when it is in use for the sake of making it smaller in ones pocket when it isn’t being used.

 

[Black Tiger]

If they're going to do a foldable iPad, they have to go big with it. A foldable iPad mini doesn't make sense because you're not going to find a lot of people who want to carry both a phone and tablet in their pocket. But a 17 inch tablet that you can easily throw in a backpack makes sense. But it would still have the crease issue.

Apple doesn’t even make 17” MacBooks, as there is little demand due to their size, so I would be surprised if they made a 17” tablet.

I used to have the original 12.9” iPad and typing on the display was actually very easy to touché type because it was a full screen keyboard and was at a normal size.

All smaller iPads feel a bit weird. So I wouldn’t write off a full sized display keyboard.

I think you can write it off. Apple didn’t even keep the touchbar around and that was definitely an experiment to see whether users liked touch-based keyboards on a laptop. They didn’t. As an owner of a touchbar model, I actually despise it. And the touchbar only crippled the function keys that aren’t used as much as the other keys, so I would imagine it would be even more irritating as a full keyboard.

 

[Black Tiger]

It makes sense for an iPad.

• Folded = Tablet mode.
• Unfold as on the article picture = "ultraportable laptop mode"
• Unfold in portrait mode + attach some magnetic full size keyboard + trackpad = big size screen (a bonus would be: use macOS in this mode).

I really believe this is an interesting future where MacBooks would be only for graphic designers and people who need maximum power.

I think you very much underestimate how many people prefer laptops. Tablets have always been a compromised device that neither had the portability of a phone or the utility of a laptop. It’s not just graphic designers using them. Hauling around a magnetic keyboard basically concedes that a laptop is better than a tablet. If anything, I would think that graphic designers would be more likely to prefer the tablet due to its ability to take input from a stylus like the Apple Pencil.