Foldable iPhone Development Allegedly Paused Due to Failing Screens

[Victor Mortimer]

According to this Samsung is expected to sell 6 million foldable phones. How many of those are returned with failed screen?

All of them fail, generally within a week. Users tend to put up with it.

Ever touched one? They're absolutely awful, the screen feels terrible, and if it's more than a week old there's a horrible looking crease in the middle of the screen.

Foldable screens are NEVER going to be good unless there's a breakthrough in materials science.

 

[G5isAlive]

I know 7 days sounds impossible right now but thats because battery technology has not been improved drastically for over 2 decades now. Same Li-Ion batteries from 2000s are being used, we just have faster charging now.

It's not that it sounds impossible, its just implausible. The way this problem will be solved is not better batteries, it will have to be more energy efficient screens and other components. It's why Apple is focused on efficiency. A battery is about energy density. It has the potential to burn or explode if that energy is released in other ways than intended. for your 7 day battery life without efficiency improvements, would require 7 times the energy density and I am not sure I want to carry that in my hand.

 

[karranz]

more and more screens

 

[Victor Mortimer]

It's not that it sounds impossible, its just implausible. The way this problem will be solved is not better batteries, it will have to be more energy efficient screens and other components. It's why Apple is focused on efficiency. A battery is about energy density. It has the potential to burn or explode if that energy is released in other ways than intended. for your 7 day battery life without efficiency improvements, would require 7 times the energy density and I am not sure I want to carry that in my hand.

A 7 day phone is easy. All you have to do is put on a small black and white non-backlit screen, and slow the processor way down.

How do I know it's easy? They used to exist. Nobody wants one any more because they're just phones, you can't really use them for anything but talking on.

 

[ThaGoochiestMane]

The things shown on the cover picture of this article look soo bad.
Can't even use the term 'phone' to describe it.

That's one of the reasons why Microsoft was hesitant to call their Surface Duo a "phone," because it really is more of a new device category than anything that existed before.

 

[Fuzzball84]

I don’t see the engineering ever working out, to be honest. The other option is two physical halves connected by hinges like the Surface Duo phones, but I really doubt Apple would go such an “unappealing” route.

un appealing?

Mighty Mouse charge port

Vision Pro (Scuba theme)

Antenna bands on iPhones and ipads

Apple Pencil first gen charging direct on ipad

Butterfly mechanism

Strain relief on practically every cable

the list goes on....

I mean if it works, why not... some of those things just work... but Apple are not as refined as they make out

 

[macos9rules]

If there's one piece of technology I'm not interested in, it's folding phones.

 

[macos9rules]

This is the sort of foldable I'd like.

Source: Microsoft Productivity Future Vision (from 2015) - Video on YouTube

[Edit - yes, yes I know it's likely decades away / impossible - doesn't mean I can't want it.]

View attachment 2349890

A foldable mouse pad?

 

[MarkNewton2023]

Apple has suspended its development of a foldable iPhone after supplier displays failed to pass the company's own stringent testing standards, claims a new rumor coming out of China.

According to Fixed Focus Digital, a Weibo-based tech video blogger from Guangdong with a huge Chinese following, Apple has been testing rival foldable phones as part of its research and development process into foldable devices, which is believed to have been going on since 2016.

At least one of the foldables that Apple is said to have been testing uses a display made by Samsung. Samsung is a major supplier of display panels used in Apple devices, and is known to have provided foldable display samples to Apple in the past. A recent report also claimed that Samsung has been attempting to strengthen its operational efficiency in anticipation of Apple's first foldable products by integrating the expertise it has gained making foldable devices since 2019.

However, the source of today's rumor claims that Samsung's latest folding panels "broke down after a few days" under Apple's rigorous internal testing, which has caused Apple to put the entire project on ice for the foreseeable future, or at least until a display that can meet its high standards can be developed.

According to a report from The Information earlier this month, Apple has been actively building prototypes of at least two foldable iPhones following over five years of research and development. The two iPhone prototypes are said to fold widthwise like a clamshell, but do not feature in Apple's product roadmap for 2024 or 2025. The report noted that the foldable iPhones could still be canceled if they do not meet Apple's standards.

The Weibo account purporting to have received information about the foldable project's suspension at Apple is a largely unknown quantity, having no previous track record for Apple rumors to our knowledge, therefore skepticism about its accuracy is warranted.

It's also unclear whether the claim impacts Apple's continuing work on a foldable iPad. Apple is rumored to be more interested in such a device, which could be thicker than a foldable ‌iPhone‌ since users would not expect to carry it in their pocket and it would not need to pass the high durability requirements of an ‌iPhone‌.

Earlier this month, Korean outlet The Elec reported that Apple is considering launching its first foldable in the next few years in the form of a 7- to 8-inch device that could ultimately replace the 8.3-inch iPad mini.

Article Link: Foldable iPhone Development Allegedly Paused Due to Failing Screens

It is too bad but life goes on. Someday, this quality issue will get resolved with latest technology. Let us not be hopeless. Keep calm, the time for foldable iPhone will come when technology and foldable screen quality permits and be happy on current available iPhones😊 Life is too short to be unhappy and hopeless😊

 

[TVreporter]

That sounds wrong. Is Samsung giving them their scraps from the display division?

I highly doubt that - Apple is one of their biggest customers. They want to keep them happy.

 

[coolfactor]

Apple is so desperate to create new product lines that they have stopped innovating on their current ones for a long time now.

We should have had 7 day battery phones by now or under display camera phones. These things have real world benefits. A folding phone is a gimmick and the poor sales from other brands is a proof of that.

There is a report that Apple is working on new battery technology. Developing this can take a decade or more.

Lithium-ion battery tech was first proposed in the 1970s, and didn't come to market until 1991.

The reality is that there is tremendous innovation being made, but it's so incremental that it's hard to notice. Our phones are a 100x more powerful that the original smartphones, in a very short timeframe.

Just appreciate what we have.

 

[platinumaqua]

Sounds about right. I wouldn’t except Apple to release a foldable unless they were confident the screen would last.

It only needs to last until the end of standard warranty. Ideally the end of AppleCare extended warranty

 

[turbineseaplane]

Darned it ... We didn't even get a chance for them to release something and then argue about it for weeks on end!

 

[Hank001]

The two iPhone prototypes are said to fold widthwise like a clamshell, but do not featu

Widthwise?

 

[darngooddesign]

Widthwise?

The hinge spans the width, not the length; just like that photo.

 

[seek3r]

I highly doubt that - Apple is one of their biggest customers. They want to keep them happy.

Also like a lot of big companies of the same ilk the part of samsung that makes displays and the part of samsung that makes phones are basically 2 separate companies.

 

[Jovian9]

As I've gotten older I keep my phones a lot longer. I used to upgrade every year to 18 months but now it's closer to 3 years. I would want these screens to last a lot longer than what I keep a phone for.

A friend of mine has a foldable Samsung. When he handed it to me to look at my first impression was that it was pretty cool. But then as I used it for about 20 minutes I really had no further interest in it and the crease in the screen was very distracting to me. Maybe it's something you get used to after awhile but I couldn't stand that crease down the middle of it. That took away from the screen size advantage of it unfolding in my eyes.

 

[timborama]

Apple can’t even get under-glass Touch ID, how do you expect them to get foldable screens to work.

 

[spinedoc77]

There is certainly a trade off, although personally I've not had an issue with 4 generations now. But certainly you can grind a divot into a foldable screen, but I could also grind a scratch into my iPhone screen if I tried hard enough (my iPhones have WAY more microscratches than any of my foldables for example). I can't say I particularly blame Apple for waiting until the technology matures.

 

[spinedoc77]

All of them fail, generally within a week. Users tend to put up with it.

Ever touched one? They're absolutely awful, the screen feels terrible, and if it's more than a week old there's a horrible looking crease in the middle of the screen.

Foldable screens are NEVER going to be good unless there's a breakthrough in materials science.

What is it with all the completely unfounded FUD? Where is your proof? If there was a widespread issue you can be SURE the media and tech sites would have picked up on it just like they did with the Fold 1 and the exploding Note phone. I can totally understand if you don't like the crease or are worried about the existing compromises a softer foldable screen caveats, but I never really understood just making stuff up out of thin air to prove a point.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Touchscreens and “app stores” were widely available before the OG iPhone. They just weren’t very good.

But no one was asking for better versions. My point exactly.

 

[DFZD]

Just appreciate what we have.

I wonder why Apple stopped appreciating Headphone Jack.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Why hasn’t Apple released a foldable phone? Because they have higher standards. Simple as that.

If they could get them to work and function as expected, with a glass display instead of a plastic screen protector, this will be like a next-generation device. The foldable form factor could be incredibly practical, if they can build it to their standards.

 

[Calebjones19]

I love the idea of Apple getting into this space to make my phone into a small tablet. I think they have a long road ahead of them especially with MagSafe. I don’t know how they would keep this and where it would go.

 

[ofarlig]

As I've gotten older I keep my phones a lot longer. I used to upgrade every year to 18 months but now it's closer to 3 years. I would want these screens to last a lot longer than what I keep a phone for.

A friend of mine has a foldable Samsung. When he handed it to me to look at my first impression was that it was pretty cool. But then as I used it for about 20 minutes I really had no further interest in it and the crease in the screen was very distracting to me. Maybe it's something you get used to after awhile but I couldn't stand that crease down the middle of it. That took away from the screen size advantage of it unfolding in my eyes.

We all got used to the ugly notch or "Dynamic Island" that Apple have used on their screens, the crease is the same way after a while. Took me a week before I didn't even notice it anymore even back on the Fold 2 that had a more pronounced crease than current gen, if we look at something like the OnePlus Open you barely see the crease.

I think the utility is the draw for me (apart from it being cool to fold it up), having a screen size that is actually useful makes the phone a tool instead of just a communication device.