Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
You
What are the hurdles to bringing a quality foldable smartphone to market, and why hasn’t a $3 trillion company like Apple managed to do it by now?

ChatGPT 3.5
Creating a quality foldable smartphone involves overcoming several technical and design challenges. Some hurdles include:

1. Durability: Foldable screens need to withstand constant bending without losing display quality or durability over time.

2. Material Innovation: Developing flexible and durable materials for the display and hinge mechanism is crucial. Finding materials that can maintain structural integrity through repeated folding is challenging.

3. Engineering Complexity: Designing a hinge system that allows for smooth folding without compromising structural integrity or performance is a complex engineering task.

4. Manufacturing Precision: Achieving the level of precision required for mass production of foldable screens and components adds complexity to the manufacturing process.

5. Battery Technology: Foldable devices need innovative battery solutions that can fit into compact spaces and provide sufficient power for extended use.

6. User Experience: Ensuring a seamless and intuitive user experience across the folding and unfolding states requires careful software development and optimization.

Regarding Apple specifically, while they are a sizable company, the challenges mentioned are significant and may require extensive research and development. Additionally, Apple tends to prioritize delivering polished and well-integrated products, which could contribute to a more cautious approach in adopting new form factors.

It's worth noting that Apple might be working on such technology behind the scenes, and the absence of a foldable iPhone in the market doesn't necessarily mean they haven't explored the concept. Companies often take their time to ensure a product meets their standards before bringing it to market.
The only serious engineering challenge I can see is the screen material itself. Apple is fully capable of designing a good hinge and since some components can be spread across both sides, the battery doesn’t necessarily need to be any smaller than what is in the iPhone 15/15Pro. Apple literally has a version of its mobile OS with splitscreen, slide over, and stage manger which can be used on the larger, unfolded screen or when hooked up to a display.
 
I would argue that the Mini should just go back to one good camera like the older iPhones. For most people that is good enough and I think people would rather they prioritize battery life with that space. At least I would.
If it skimped on the camera I'd have to go to a non-Mini. My phone has pretty much replaced my digital camera but it needs to be good enough. Having parity with the rest of the (non-pro) 13 series when it came out was a big selling point for me. Like some others, I find the 13-Mini battery life more than fine, it blew away that of the 8 I replaced.

But yes, battery capacity scales with volume, which scales with the cube of the phone dimension, while the display area scales only with the square. There's no limit to improving battery life with ever-bigger phones, so Mini-type devices will continue to fall behind due to simple laws of physics.
 
With the 13 being dropped later this year from the line up I honestly can’t see apple not releasing another Se. Since the current se is based on the 13. It would make sense to drop both at the same time.

And waiting a year for another SE seems crazy since they would not have a budget iPhone model.
 
Which is true but timing is everything. They released the SE 6 months before the Mini and many thought the SE was the Mini, if I'm remembering correctly. The Mini is never going to be a huge seller but there is a market for it. The SE and Mini should be combined into 1 product.
The key differences between the mini and the se are

1. Price
2. Nostalgia

Price because people were able to get an iPhone for under $450 and it had similar specs to the 13.

Nostalgia because for whatever reason people love that design (why idk) and swear by Touch ID (again I don’t get it).

The mini can’t compete on price and it doesn’t compete on nostalgia for those users.

what an expensive slow poke in innovation Apple has become :cool:
Apple isn’t slow. They simply are not google or android Oems creating trendy products for the sake of being first and then wondering why nobody buys them except fans of niche products.
Is there really a ton of demand for a foldable iPhone?
Aside from the android fans, no I haven’t seen many iOS fans demanding one on here.

It’s a gimmick I hope falls away.
 
The only serious engineering challenge I can see is the screen material itself. Apple is fully capable of designing a good hinge and since some components can be spread across both sides, the battery doesn’t necessarily need to be any smaller than what is in the iPhone 15/15Pro. Apple literally has a version of its mobile OS with splitscreen, slide over, and stage manger which can be used on the larger, unfolded screen or when hooked up to a display.

You do not want a foldable phone. Until there's some sort of serious advance in materials science, a foldable screen is a terrible idea.

I've seen the Samsung crap. They're awful. Lifespan of that screen looking good is measured in days.
 
C'mon Apple bring back the 27 inch iMac or better yet a 30 inch iMac. My eye can only take looking at a small screen laptop for so long. When you get old and grumpy like me, your eyes are not what they use to be and need that larger screen size. Plus, I like the clean look of an iMac and not two separate things like a monitor and desktop. Please Apple!!
 
I suspect likely this summer. An M3 Max Mac Studio will be a killer machine.
Yes! It's be basically an M2 Ultra for half the price. My current machine (an M1 Pro) is still basically good enough, but an M3 Max Studio with more RAM will be hard to resist.
 
Apple Car is way off still [...] I still believe Apple’s ambition in this space is to build a ride hail service, rather than target consumers directly… at least at first.
Agreed. I've always thought a fleet vehicle made more sense than a individually purchased/owned car. I imagine summoning an Apple Car with my iPhone; it drives me where I want to go; I pay for my ride with Apple Pay; the car drives away, gone until I need it again.
 
The simple fact is that far more millions prefer larger screens than small.Poor sales of the 12 & 13 mini proved that.
No, that wasn't proof of preference. It was proof of bad marketing. After the SE-2016 people were waiting for an updated small-formfactor phone. The SE-2020 got launched. Lots of people bought it, even those people who might have preferred the 12 mini but it took Apple 6 months to launch that one. No wonder those SE-2016 people already migrated to the SE-2020 and actually loved that phone (even though the general opinion was: it's too big). Two years later the SE-2022 got launched but why would anyone want to upgrade from the SE-2020? The SE-2022 didn't bring much extra and the SE-2020 was a good phone, still is. Apple then decided to launch the 13-mini halve a year later (didn't they learn something from the 12 mini launch?) and yes, some people started upgrading now. More people upgraded to the 13 mini when Apple announced they wouldn't launch another SE nor another mini. I'm one of those people and I just wish my 13 mini is going to last.

I won't buy a bigger iPhone. If my 13 mini breaks down or isn't supported anymore, then I'll go find my luck elsewhere which would involve a major step for me in regard of leaving the Apple ecosphere. I don't care about fashion. I do care about usability and an appealing cost-of-ownership. Most of my Apple devices are just tools for me to do my work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lioness~
No, that wasn't proof of preference. It was proof of bad marketing. After the SE-2016 people were waiting for an updated small-formfactor phone. The SE-2020 got launched. Lots of people bought it, even those people who might have preferred the 12 mini but it took Apple 6 months to launch that one. No wonder those SE-2016 people already migrated to the SE-2020 and actually loved that phone (even though the general opinion was: it's too big). Two years later the SE-2022 got launched but why would anyone want to upgrade from the SE-2020? The SE-2022 didn't bring much extra and the SE-2020 was a good phone, still is. Apple then decided to launch the 13-mini halve a year later (didn't they learn something from the 12 mini launch?) and yes, some people started upgrading now. More people upgraded to the 13 mini when Apple announced they wouldn't launch another SE nor another mini. I'm one of those people and I just wish my 13 mini is going to last.

I won't buy a bigger iPhone. If my 13 mini breaks down or isn't supported anymore, then I'll go find my luck elsewhere which would involve a major step for me in regard of leaving the Apple ecosphere. I don't care about fashion. I do care about usability and an appealing cost-of-ownership. Most of my Apple devices are just tools for me to do my work.
I was under a similar mindset with wanting only a mini and loved my 12 and 13 mini that I had, but I really wanted it to have a zoom lens. I finally gave in this year and got a 15 Pro Max because of the 5x lens.... its defiantly a large slab, but I have gotten used to it and it is quite nice without a case. Now when I hold my wife's 15 Pro, it feels like a mini :p

I still 100% would buy a Mini Pro with all the same good lenses as the Max if it were ever offered, even if it were more expensive. Just do it already Apple!!!!
 
The 2024 Apple Car dream is still alive

Sport:

_04b7dcc0-083f-4d03-91ac-3960be4836e8.jpg


City:

_475cdf03-0bb2-4c55-85db-e7b5fce20ce1.jpg
 
What part of AIO don't you understand?
AIO is the worst computing product out there. I can use my screen for a good 10+ years but oh I need to give it up as I need my computer updated more often. These things are meant to be separate. And you literally get thousands of monitors to choose from vs just one.
 
You say that, but it's not the case. An iPhone mini with Pro feature set would have had even worse battery life and been less popular due to the higher price. Physics simply isn't on your side here.

I think a iPhone 13 Mini with a 120hz variable refresh rate would have longer battery life than the current 13 Mini….

If the refresh rate was locked to 60hz max.
 
Good post. I have the 13 Mini because of the size but I have to say the battery life is terrible. I switched from the 11 because it hurt my hand due to the size. I love everything about the mini except the battery life. The camera etc. is fine for my needs so that doesn’t bother me. The battery is terrible even with the optimisations I’m running like low brightness and switch off ads. Even still I have to charge it again before the end of the day.
Anyone getting the 13 Mini has to acknowledge that small phones come with compromises…

That being said, with optimizations you can still achieve over 7hrs of SOT. (I routinely hit 8.5hrs)

Personally that seems like a adequate amount, though it will decrease over the years. After year 2, if the SOT is still not above 6hrs, I would replace the battery then…
 
AIO is the worst computing product out there. I can use my screen for a good 10+ years but oh I need to give it up as I need my computer updated more often. These things are meant to be separate. And you literally get thousands of monitors to choose from vs just one.
AIO is my love, be it phone, tablet, laptop, book reader, desktop computer or TV, I want everything built into the one AIO system including speakers and display.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Warped9
We need something more exciting than black slab, its become so boring
So is a table knife, a fork, a spoon, a hammer, a screwdriver, etc. Phones are now mature technology and changes are incremental. The current form works ideally for its purpose so there is no justifiable reason to change until or unless something better can be conceived.

They make a lot of noise over added features in terms of software that usually matter to very few people if anyone. The real reason things like an Apple Watch exist is to give people a new expensive toy and convince them it’s a game changing necessity when it’s really smoke-and-mirrors bs. If you have your phone almost always on or near you you don’t need an expensive extension of it on your wrist.
 
No, that wasn't proof of preference. It was proof of bad marketing. After the SE-2016 people were waiting for an updated small-formfactor phone. The SE-2020 got launched. Lots of people bought it, even those people who might have preferred the 12 mini but it took Apple 6 months to launch that one. No wonder those SE-2016 people already migrated to the SE-2020 and actually loved that phone (even though the general opinion was: it's too big). Two years later the SE-2022 got launched but why would anyone want to upgrade from the SE-2020? The SE-2022 didn't bring much extra and the SE-2020 was a good phone, still is. Apple then decided to launch the 13-mini halve a year later (didn't they learn something from the 12 mini launch?) and yes, some people started upgrading now. More people upgraded to the 13 mini when Apple announced they wouldn't launch another SE nor another mini. I'm one of those people and I just wish my 13 mini is going to last.

I won't buy a bigger iPhone. If my 13 mini breaks down or isn't supported anymore, then I'll go find my luck elsewhere which would involve a major step for me in regard of leaving the Apple ecosphere. I don't care about fashion. I do care about usability and an appealing cost-of-ownership. Most of my Apple devices are just tools for me to do my work.
Go elsewhere? Good luck.No other smartphone manufacturers make one as small as the iPhone mini was, as far as I know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chuckeee
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.