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Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Could Reinvigorate Stalling Market
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I agree about having the iPhone unfold into a iPad mini, but the advantage is for Apple: Higher cost for the consumer, smaller form factor so fewer materials used. Smaller boxes for shipping means they can pack in nearly twice as many per flight and have more retail space for future new product lines. Less durable folding display means people will be breaking or upgrading these more often, increasing sales of both AppleCare+ (which itself will increase in yearly price) and replacement devices.
It’s win win win all around for Apple. The only consumer win is my wife could fit her phone in her small jeans pockets again. She might buy this at any cost, and she isn’t even into tech!
Because the first thing people do when their phone breaks due to a design flaw is to rush out and buy the exact same thing all over again.
But then again, a few friends / colleagues I know whose Samsung phones developed screen issues (2 folding, 1 normal) did still end up upgrading to Samsung phones, so maybe you are on to something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Had a bad experience with phones with hinges. They aren't as durable as candybar-style phones whether they be dumb or smart.
Stuff breaking in the first couple years while it's still in it's warranty period is bad business for any manufacturer.
However from a shareholder perspective apple iphones are lasting just too damn long. 6 years? and then gets passed onto another family member who uses it for another 2-3 years? that's bad for profits.
A phone that physically dies after 3 years and cannot be passed on to a family member, now that's 💰
/s
It will be slathered with emojis. Its emojis will be able to make their own emojis.
People, just imagine this scene for a while:
Cupertino CA, September 9th, 2025. Tim Cook is in the middle of the screen, he’s being spotted at somewhere in the Apple Park… Suddenly, he holds his hands together to say:
“I’m proud to be here to announce the thinnest iPhone we’ve ever made…. Our new iPhone is light, fine, elegant, and is foldable!… We all at Apple know that everybody will be delightful and you are going to love it”
And that way is how Apple will change the paradigm of the slab phones around the world. Then foldables mobiles will become worldwide accepted and a new trend will take power. Meanwhile all the detractors that were against the idea of a foldable iPhone (at Macrumors) will accept from one moment to another the new concept unveiled by Tim, just to debate which color they will pick.
As you may imagine, that sole year Apple will sell more iPhones than any year before, and months later every other phone brands will be launching foldable phones too, which means that foldable phones market will increase from 2% to 40% in a year basis, being this just the first year of the foldable iPhone.
The rest will be history as always has been. Just remember StarTac - Nokia - Sony Ericsson - Razr - Blackberry - nowadays iPhone - and please get ready for the new foldable iPhone.
Obviously the iPhone as we know it, has to change or die (as the whole concept has changed in the last 30 years) there’s no option.
Cupertino CA, September 9th, 2025. Tim Cook is in the middle of the screen, he’s being spotted at somewhere in the Apple Park… Suddenly, he holds his hands together to say:
“I’m proud to be here to announce the thinnest iPhone we’ve ever made…. Our new iPhone is light, fine, elegant, and is foldable!… We all at Apple know that everybody will be delightful and you are going to love it”
And that way is how Apple will change the paradigm of the slab phones around the world. Then foldables mobiles will become worldwide accepted and a new trend will take power. Meanwhile all the detractors that were against the idea of a foldable iPhone (at Macrumors) will accept from one moment to another the new concept unveiled by Tim, just to debate which color they will pick.
As you may imagine, that sole year Apple will sell more iPhones than any year before, and months later every other phone brands will be launching foldable phones too, which means that foldable phones market will increase from 2% to 40% in a year basis, being this just the first year of the foldable iPhone.
The rest will be history as always has been. Just remember StarTac - Nokia - Sony Ericsson - Razr - Blackberry - nowadays iPhone - and please get ready for the new foldable iPhone.
Obviously the iPhone as we know it, has to change or die (as the whole concept has changed in the last 30 years) there’s no option.
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I will save this post just to take it out and laugh at all foldable detractors and to complement with an “I told you”, once the day arrive.
I’m sure I can bet on this.
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Even if the iPhone has to change, there is no guarantee that the folding phone represents the next evolution in form factor of the smartphone. It’s a niche product category, more akin to curved screens (anyone remember those) than phablets, and Apple will do just fine regardless of whether they do end up releasing one or not.
I'd probably look at other brands and options before being forced into a foldable phone though. It might be that it is so expensive that it won't be an option anyway by then. It is perfectly fine to be critical of directions in technology that we don't need or agree with by the way. You say the current iPhone form as we know it 'has to change or die', but why does it? Why couldn't it remain the same but have foldables as an additional option like we see with Samsung? I don't think foldables are the sole solution to the future of smartphones, anymore than VR/AR are the sole future of computing. Certain products serve a purpose and have their niche segments and always have.
Will you though? Who is going to care at that point apart from you clearly?
Yeah! Now it is! At this very moment, foldable phones are just a niche product because it haven’t been driven to be a mainstream product by a serious company as Apple is.
Before the first iPhone, BlackBerry was the leader in the industry those days and having a device half screen with a physical keyboard was the form factor reigning at that very moment. And what happened?? Apple get to the scene with a category that they never had considered before and introduced to the world the new iPhone, a phone that revolutioned the industry and that converted a supposed niche product to an aspirational product, being a product that everyone wanted to have.
As I wrote before, StarTacs, Nokias, Blackberry’s and even iPhone were also niche products at their beginnings until them became popular.
The history of technology is full of these examples. Remember that at first the early adopters test the technology, and then everybody want to have it.
I don’t believe the folding phone will ever be the mainstream phone. It will always be a niche product. It might become a large and successful niche for a while, but I don’t think bendy phones are the next step. There are just too many inherent compromises.
Because is logical, because it’s the way it is, because next year the all screen phones are about to turn 18 years as we currently know them, and the common people is getting bored (and this can be proven showing how less iPhones are sold year to year, this is shown by the statistics, not by my sayings), because every year more people is keeping its 13, 14 or 15 iPhones and are less excited to update.
Also, please keep in mind that the market is demanding bigger smartphones year to year, and physically this is possible just until some limit (at some point) until the smartphone is reasonably pocketable. Crossing that line, smartphones can keep growing only if can be fitted in ladies handbags or in our trousers pockets, so the foldable smartphone is the right answer for that trend that the market is demanding.
More important than all that I have argued is, because it will be a business decision that Apple is taking to renew the love of the market to the iPhone, persuading people to update with this move, thus because most people will be wanting to have an iPhone that looks pretty new. Mainly it will be a marketing move, my friend.
Smartphones in general are a mature product and that goes for the entire industry. People aren’t updating as often because they don’t need to, not because they aren’t excited. We certainly don’t need to drive the market back to yearly updates as that’s appalling for the environment. Not everyone is a tech enthusiast, so when a vocal minority claim to be bored, this doesn’t mean the smartphone buying public need phones that fold into iPads in order to inject excitement. Foldables are also not for everyone.