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Kuo: Apple Testing 9-Inch Foldable Device, but Foldable iPhone Unlikely Until 2025 or Later

I don’t want a “Foldable iPhone” per se - but an iPhone that folds out into an iPad (or an iPad that folds up into an iPhone, however you want to look at it) would be interesting.
 
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DanteHicks79 said:
Foldable phones are little more than a gimmick, like 3D tvs. Remember 3D tvs? They were being massively hyped - and nobody bought. How many 3D tvs do you see on the market now?

Not even Android folk are really all that excited about foldables. If they were, you'd see them everywhere.

Maybe instead of making foldable devices, Apple can focus on releasing iOS versions that don't require a zillion patches and updates to deliver the functionality promised at launch?
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Yeah, you're absolutely wrong. Everywhere I go with my brother, people are curious of his Galaxy Fold.

Albiet the cool factor, the actual use case for him is watching movies, videos, and viewing content on the big screen. If he wants to text, he leaves it in the folded position for easy one-hand text. Many use cases for foldable phones, this is not a "3D" moment.
 
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zorinlynx said:
Yay, a big obvious mechanical failure point. No thanks.

I like being able to pull out my phone and just use it, without having to unfold anything. I'm not sure what the benefit would be; it's one more thing to wear out, debris could get inside and crack the screen when you fold it, etc.

Apple spent the last decade getting rid of mechanical parts that wear out; why would they bring that back?
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Just a counter point: in a world where there are endless incentives to rent phones for 1-2 years max and upgrade to the latest thing, does this actually matter?
 
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locoboi187 said:
Yeah, you're absolutely wrong. Everywhere I go with my brother, people are curious of his Galaxy Fold.

Albiet the cool factor, the actual use case for him is watching movies, videos, and viewing content on the big screen. If he wants to text, he leaves it in the folded position for easy one-hand text. Many use cases for foldable phones, this is not a "3D" moment.
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Until it unfolds to the size of my 12.9" iPad Pro, it doesn't help me. I saw this prototype unrollable phone that goes from 6" to.....wait for it.....7"! Revolution! Lol. No thanks.
 
medazinol said:
Does anyone really want or need a folding phone? The UX is just terrible, unless they add another screen to the other side for quick checks. Having to unfold a large phone to reply to a text or a email is rather cumbersome
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I think the idea of folding a large phone to be smaller is pointless.

The idea of unfolding a phone to be a tablet has potential. But has long way to go.
 
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Macative said:
And why the heck would Apple want to sell you 1 $1200 foldable device when they can sell you 2 $1000 devices.
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From where did you get $1200? And if we're going to be a bunch of consumers worried MOST about maximizing a corporation's profits, why can't we also imagine a price in which Apple makes MORE on such a thing instead of only automatically less? You know this very same company just rolled out a monitor that seems in just about every way it could be a full iMac 27" for almost a base iMac 27" price, sans those computing guts, keyboard and mouse. Within the last 30 days, this company rolled out a thicker Mini at prices many multiples of Mini and are apparently selling lots of them. It seems Apple knows how to take care of its own profit accumulation. They probably don't need our help.

In the last day or two, there was a thread full of comments in which even this very pro-Apple crowd was talking about the next iPhones... how iPhones had peaked... how they were no longer compelled to upgrade every year or even every two years. If there is any real merit to that perception- especially among the masses- perhaps an entirely new form factor could inspire people that are "ho hum" on incremental phone or tablet evolutions to act. In that scenario, even a lower total revenue per piece could generate much greater revenue in total... simply by inspiring a lot of people to buy vs. stick with the "as is" for another year or two... or three.

But again, I doubt Apple needs OUR help to figure out how to maximize profits. Lately, they seem better at that than anything else. What we consumers need from Apple are innovative products... perhaps even more so than iterative products for something we already have that only does a few things slightly faster or is painted a different color.

This concept- like the monitor and Mac Studio- would be an entirely new thing... perhaps stirring entirely new buying that otherwise may not be realized from iterative updates to the same old lines. Case in point: Studio just motivated me to spend more for a Mac than I have ever spent before. Had it been the rumored Mac Mini Pro or Max, I probably would NOT have given Apple more money in one transaction than ever before.
 
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Rychiar said:
ZERO interest in foldable. not practical at all. imagine dropping one. yikes. Foldable iPad however would be nice
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An iPhone with front and back glass and 3 exposed camera lenses? Imagine dropping one, yikes.

The latest gen of the Galaxy foldable a have proven very durable already.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
From where did you get $1200? And if we going to be a bunch of consumers worried MOST about maximizing a corporation's profits, why can't we also imagine a price in which Apple makes MORE on such a thing instead of only automatically less? You know this very same company just rolled out a monitor that seems in just about every way it could be a full iMac 27" for almost a base iMac 27" price, sans those computing guts, keyboard and mouse. Within the last 30 days, this company rolled out a thicker Mini at prices many multiples of Mini and are apparently selling lots of them. It seems Apple knows how to take care of its own profit accumulation. They probably don't need our help.

In the last day or two, there was a thread full of comments in which even this very pro-Apple crowd were talking about the next iPhones... how iPhones had peaked... how they were no longer compelled to upgrade every year or even every two years. If there is any real merit to that perception- especially among the masses- perhaps an entirely new form factor could inspire people that are "ho hum" on incremental phone or tablet evolutions to act. In that scenario, even a lower total revenue per piece could generate much greater revenue in total... simply by inspiring a lot of people to buy vs. stick with the "as is" for another year or two... or three.

But again, I doubt Apple needs OUR help to figure out how to maximize profits. Lately, they seem better at that than anything else. What we consumers need from Apple are innovative products... perhaps even more so than iterative products for something we already have that only does a few things slightly faster or is painted a different color.

This concept- like the monitor and Mac Studio- would be an entirely new thing... perhaps stirring entirely new buying that otherwise may not be realized from iterative updates to the same old lines. Case in point: Studio just motivated me to spend more for a Mac than I have even spent before. Had it been the rumored Mac Mini Pro or Max, I probably would NOT have given Apple more money in one transaction than ever before.
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Too many thick-skulled people here who can no longer see beyond the line up of products Apple already has.

This kind of thinking is how innovation dies, and then you start reading people saying "all Apple does is make tiny updates to their products yearly..."
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Just think (different): that would be iPad-sized screen that can fold into a size that fits in a pocket. Big screen for bigger-screen benefits and pocketable for hands-free mobility benefits... in ONE device!!!
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Yes, but it has to stand up to constant use. Imagine how MacRumors would scream if screens had a 1% failure rate within the first few months.
 
LonestarOne said:
Yes, but it has to stand up to constant use. Imagine how MacRumors would scream if screens had a 1% failure rate within the first few months.
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I'm confident that if Apple rolls out such a thing, it will work very well.

Much of our perceptions about how terrible such devices are revolve around the usual crowd psychology of beating anything down that Apple is not currently selling. See:
  • phablet-sized phones while Apple still clung to 4" screens and
  • NFC phone transactions before Apple rolled out Apple Pay and
  • the endless bash of streaming lossless music before Apple rolled out lossless streaming,
  • etc.
"We" are masters of foreseeing the uselessness of something and rationalizing disdain for things offered by others until Apple actually goes there. Then, magically, all that depth of negativity... all that disdain... all of those monumental issues we would all suffer with whatever it is... seem to evaporate... to be quickly replaced with "best __________ ever" and "shut up and take my money."

If Apple rolls out a foldable/rollable/(goggles/glasses) virtual mobile, this crowd would immediately flip to gushing & heaping PRAISE upon it. It is the most predicable speculation on a rumor site: let Apple endorse anything new and the most passionate bashers of whatever it is prior to that day will magically flip into evangelists for it going forward.

I'm still looking for all these pants with bigger pockets people suffering from the "abomination" and "fragmentation" caused by Apple moving on from the "perfect" phone screen size at 4" Step back and look at threads BEFORE "we" thought Apple would go there and you'd think a phablet would be a total disaster for Apple. At and afterwards: years of "shut up and take my money" and "best iPhone ever" and "how did we ever get by on puny 4" screens", etc.

Here we go again.
 
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Apple waiting for clothing manufacturers to start making clothes with larger pockets……. That’s the delay
 
WiiDSmoker said:
But people on here told me that Apple would never copy Samsung
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Good point. Apple hasn't been hyping this technology for the last decade knowing full well that they don't have the technology at the point where it can be shipped and haven't thought through what actual, day-to-day problems it solves other than "Woah... it folds like a paper thing... derrrrrp. I'm a technology wiz!!!"

When Apple does put this into a product, it's going to solve some problem directly and will be a compelling implementation, not an endless series of flashy, hyped up videos of vaporware intended to generate headlines.

So, right. Apple isn't copying Samsung.
 
Haven't they been testing this for quite some time? maxresdefault.jpg
 
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DanteHicks79 said:
Foldable phones are little more than a gimmick, like 3D tvs. Remember 3D tvs? They were being massively hyped - and nobody bought. How many 3D tvs do you see on the market now?

Not even Android folk are really all that excited about foldables. If they were, you'd see them everywhere.

Maybe instead of making foldable devices, Apple can focus on releasing iOS versions that don't require a zillion patches and updates to deliver the functionality promised at launch?
Click to expand...
Remember when phablets were called a gimmick by Apple fans until Apple finally released one (a few years later than Samsung).
 
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falainber said:
Remember when phablets were called a gimmick by Apple fans until Apple finally released one (a few years later than Samsung).
Click to expand...

Remember when the He Man Apple's Haters Club declared the iPad a failure because it was "just a big iPhone?"

All tech fans do this. I'm not sure what the point is of bringing it up as if everyone thinks with one brain or collectively believes the same thing.

That said, phablets haven't thrived, and people typically own both a tablet and a phone. There was a good reason to mock the whole oversized phone concept if only for the impracticality of packing one around.
 
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