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Foldable iPhone will replace the non-foldable just like how the iPhone completely replaced the iPod and iPod touch, assuming Apple does prioritize the software for the foldable device.
It won’t replace anytime soon. Economies of Scale need to catch up and that will take a decade for this type of device. It’s WAY too expensive so phones like the iPhone 17e will still be among the most popular with consumers.
 
I would buy a flip iPhone, at a third of the price they want for this foldable. 2 grand is too much for a disposable thing like a phone
You’ll only get a 16e at a third of that price. Inflation, baby.
 
This will sell great and be a permanent fixture in the lineup for a long time.

Prototypes are clearly going well inside Apple, a good portion of the WWDC sessions this year focus on fluidity of content layout so they’re doing a lot of work well ahead of time to make sure applications support this natively.

They wouldn’t be proceeding unless people internally are satisfied.

You’ll always get people hating what they don’t have or can’t afford, it is what it is. Just ignore them, there are devices to satisfy their needs regardless of their grousing.

I’m looking forward to this and keeping my 15PM for 3 years so I can make a decision then, the longest I’ll have kept any iPhone.

Ebook and PDF reading are going to be nice, especially if you can use the action button for forward page turn.
 
$2,000 is a lot for a computer, camera, video recorder, GPS navigation device, phone, hand-held gaming device, MP3/Video player, calculator, voice recorder, web cam, alarm clock, and e-reader all in one device that you can put in your pocket, that you use daily? I respectfully disagree.
All the use cases are also true for the current iPhones. Most people will choke at buying a $2000 phone unless there are some provider subsidies or other incentives.
 
Foldable iPhone will replace the non-foldable just like how the iPhone completely replaced the iPod and iPod touch, assuming Apple does prioritize the software for the foldable device.
I think it's more of a steppingstone or stopgap. Before it hits mass adoption, there will be glasses so good you don't need a phone. Then we will go to those little discs you attach to the side of your head like in Black Mirror. Then we go to brain implants. Then we go to nanite injections. Then eventually we code it into our DNA so our body builds it organically. Then we evolve into beings of pure energy.

"We call it iEnergy. And we think you're gonna love it."
 
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Cool but not sure of the need unless it becomes compatible with every single iPad app and Apple Pencil, including Logic for iPad.

I’d rather have a smaller iPhone or the Air.
 
I think Apple has maybe already done a lot of the work needed. The iPadOS 26 changes that allow for app window resizing seems ideal for use in the foldable, especially when you unfold the device and whatever app was on the narrower outside screen then resizes to fit the inner screen. I'm not sure what else they could do for software that they don't already do with iPad-sized versions of their apps.
 
All the use cases are also true for the current iPhones. Most people will choke at buying a $2000 phone unless there are some provider subsidies or other incentives.
And, I don't think the price of iPhones are too high either, for what you get. For the $2000, you'd get a mini tablet with a cellular connection that you don't have to pay extra for, and an iPhone in one.
 
I will likely buy one since I already have a ZFold 7 on the way this Friday, upgrading from an earlier ZFold. I am not so much interested in the phone portion since I rarely use my phone for anything but phone calls and tracking info on my smart ring, but my main device I use for 90% of my computing needs is my iPad. A foldable iPhone is an iPad mini that happens to fold. The tablet mode is what interests me, not the phone, but it does save me from carrying too many devices around.

At the moment, I carry around two phones, an iPhone and a ZFold. I’ll continue to do that for the next year. When the foldable iPhone comes out, I’ll evaluate how good it is, and if it’s decent, I’ll put away my ZFold and old iPhone and just carry the foldable iPhone around. Having an iPad mini that fits in my pocket is ideal. If Apple had made a foldable iPad, I would have bought that, even without a phone feature in it.

The ZFolds are rather nice, but the big disadvantage is Android. My whole household uses Apple devices, making a foldable iPhone more desirable just from an ecosystem point of view.
 
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Members come here to gush over a device like a phone with a big fold down the middle of the screen that doesn’t even have FaceID and the same people call the VisionPro “an expensive device of little real world value”.
 
That said, there's nothing in Gurman's report to suggest that regular iPhone users need be concerned about a lack of UI innovations coming to their devices next year.

Of course not. A lack of innovations has pretty much been the story with iPhones for a while. At most, we can simply hope they catch up with the competition.
 
Apple is retreating into the cave just like Nokia once did. If you focus too much on your own superiority in the mirror, you’ll miss the future outside the window.

Why would somebody want to have that Donkey Kong?
 
It won’t replace anytime soon. Economies of Scale need to catch up and that will take a decade for this type of device. It’s WAY too expensive so phones like the iPhone 17e will still be among the most popular with consumers.
It won't replace anything in any future, just like the Z fold hasn't gained any significant market share...
And Samsung hasn't even given it the best camera to avoid competing with the ultra.
This will be a different category, not a replacement
 
Photos Clean Up is an awesome feature, and requires AI support. Video wind noise reduction is also great, and also requires a 16e/16/16Pro or newer, but AFAIK is not dependent upon AI.
As a 15 Pro owner, just coming up on 2 years old, this planned obsolescence irritates me.
I will not buy a new phone every year.
I am not obsessed with a folding phone.
I just want my phone to have decent features and not be deliberately limited to make me buy a new one.

Otherwise a Pixel or something else will become more appealing.
 
Foldable iPhone will replace the non-foldable just like how the iPhone completely replaced the iPod and iPod touch, assuming Apple does prioritize the software for the foldable device.
I really do not think that will be the case.
I think folding phones and standard slab phones will coexist amongst each other for decades to come, just like they did in the 2000s.
people forget, but in the 2000s it wasn’t just flip phones, it was flat phones as well.
just like we have laptops and desktops, mini tablets and massive tablets, earbuds, over ear headphones, and big cans, different products will exist for different people.

The thing with the iPhone cannibalizing the iPod is that the iPod was for the majority of purposes a single purpose device. it was for listening to music and not much more. Sure it had video functions eventually and games or whatever, but it was clearly meant for one thing.
meanwhile, a slab phone and a folding phone serve the same purposes, they just do the things in different ways.
 
I would buy a flip iPhone, at a third of the price they want for this foldable. 2 grand is too much for a disposable thing like a phone
If they develop one, it will start at $1299 at the minimum. With a decent trade-in you might get to that third-of price you seek, but you would need something of a perfect storm to make it happen.
 
As a 15 Pro owner, just coming up on 2 years old, this planned obsolescence irritates me.
I will not buy a new phone every year.
I am not obsessed with a folding phone.
I just want my phone to have decent features and not be deliberately limited to make me buy a new one.

Otherwise a Pixel or something else will become more appealing.

iPhone 14 Pro here. I just turned off auto downloads/updates of iOS i know this will be the one that will make the phone unusable..
 
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>Instead of Face ID, the device is expected to use Touch ID authentication built into a side button to save internal space, while 48MP dual-lens rear cameras are also likely to feature.

Would be kinda cool if the Touch ID button opened unfolded the phone.

Still, I’ll believe this whole folding iPhone rumor when I see it. And then I’ll wait to see how much everyone complains about X features. Apple is holding a strong track record of pushing out unintuitive bordering on useless features in their hardware and software. I have zero expectation of this being even marginally more successful than the Vision Pro.
 
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