1. The 1st Generation: The Overpriced Prototype
What it actually is: A flex for tech influencers and people with more money than patience.
The reality: It’s thick, heavy, battery life is atrocious, and the crease in the middle looks like a miniature Grand Canyon. You open it twice to show off to your friends, and on the third time, a stray dust particle under the screen completely destroys the display.
The verdict: Never buy Gen 1 unless you enjoy crying at Apple Store Genius Bars.
2. The 2nd Generation: The Apology Tour
What it actually is: Apple (or any tech giant) fixing the catastrophic hardware flaws from Gen 1.
The reality: They fix the hinge so dust doesn't instantly ruin your life, make it 1 millimeter thinner, and call it "revolutionary." However, the software is still half-baked, the cameras are stripped down to fit the chassis, and the price tag is still absurdly high. It's the "Sorry we used you as a lab rat last year" model.
3. The 3rd Generation: The Actual Finished Product
What it actually is: The moment the device becomes a real consumer product instead of a gimmick.
The reality: By Gen 3, three crucial things happen:
1. Hardware Maturity: The crease is finally tolerable, the hinge actually lasts, and the chassis isn't built like a brick.
2. Software Optimization: iOS actually knows what to do with a folding screen instead of just stretching regular apps like ugly accordions.
3. Supply Chain Efficiency: Component costs drop, meaning they can actually put proper cameras and battery capacity into the thing without making it cost as much as a used car.
I know you are exaggerating for comic effect, but the truth is that this isn’t really how any recent first-generation Apple products have worked at all.
I can’t remember a recent first-generation Apple product where they changed that much in the second or third generation.
The first generation Apple Watch? Not only cheaper then the second generation, but pretty close to the same design, materials, etc., used to this day.
The first generation AirPods? Other than some design tweaks, basically the same as the basic AirPods 4 that exist today.
The first generation airtags? Again, pretty much the same as the second generation, other than some tiny improvements.
Even the second generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G, had an absolutely identical screen, camera, processor, amount of RAM, and everything else to the original iPhone. The only thing new is a significantly smaller battery, the 3G radio, and GPS. Other than that, it’s hardware was absolutely identical spec for spec with the original.
To start with this ridiculous post, Samsung is the one providing the screens, and they are on their eighth generation of folding devices. Your post implies that Apple is going to have to start from the first generation, like going back to the first galaxy fold back in 2019, but that is just not the case. The folding iPhone is going to be very similar to the folds that Samsung have been releasing the last three years.
Secondly, it’s very likely the second generation and the third generation, if they change much at all, will mostly be chip swaps and camera upgrades. Think X to XS, the only thing that really changed was an added gold color and the A12 instead of the A11.
Thirdly, you are absolutely delusional if you think the retail price of the second or third generation is going to be going down. If anything, it will be the opposite. Remember, the iPhone X started at $999 and people were convinced that price would come down. It has not, it’s likely to go up even further this fall.
