No Foldable iPhone Expected Until 2023 at the Earliest, But 2024 More Likely

[Miha_v]

Foldable phones are theoretically a great solution. But then again, Apple doesn't need to go everywhere; companies have been producing laptops with adjustable touchscreen displays for years now and it would seem Macbooks would have to go that way, but Apple decided to not compromise and rather develop two distinct products (Macbooks, iPads). Seems they are doing just fine this way.

I'm sure Apple is testing prototypes and will continue to do so, but they will only release a foldable phone if they really come up with something great. Price-tag on that thing will probably be quite high, though...

 

[ninethirty]

I'm sure by then, another solution in search of a problem will be the newest fad.

 

[TinyMito]

I don't want a folding phone; I want everything on my watch or wrist. I'm tired to carry that hunk in my pocket.

 

[ar_woodbury]

For the love of Steve, foldable phones are a gimmick

 

[SFjohn]

CrHinge worthy. 😉

 

[Corsig]

Disingenuous post.

Those are early models that, yes, did have issues but have been resolved. Did Samsung rush the product? Yes. Did they fix it? Yes. Just like Apple messed up and fixed the butterfly keyboard issue.

Furthermore; is no one interested? Who are YOU to make that call? If YOU aren't interested... GREAT! Don't buy it. Go buy something else. Phone manufacturers making all sorts of phones for consumers that fit their use case is a GREAT thing. Did you know Apple makes more than one kind of iPhone? Pretty neat, huh?

She just posts to get her post number up. Doesn’t matter what is said or if it even makes sense. Most importantly is she first or in the top 5. Some days it’s Apple can do no wrong and then they can’t do any right whatever gets the Most likes. I’ll get suspended for this im sure

 

[Sedulous]

No thanks. I do not want a gigantic thiccc phone just because it is a whiz-bang new-old form factor with the added feature of extreme fragility. No, Apple will not be selling a foldable device unless materials change in a major way.

 

[kaycrystal626]

Still find foldable phones not appealing.

 

[Macaholic868]

Nobody wants a foldable iPhone. If you want overpriced, poorly made garbage like that buy an Android based device.

 

[ErikGrim]

Not going to happen

 

[Macintosh TV]

I don't want an extra thick phone.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Assuming that Apple works 2-3 years ahead, this means that Apple has an engineering simple somewhere in a lab that they're confident enough in that it might come out in a few years time.

Assuming that this rumor is correct.

 

[bobcomer]

Again, it’s just a matter of time, even when there is a thin plastic screen protector applied.

I never use those either, unless it comes with it like the Flip3 has. Never had one significantly fail, other than an iPhone -- broken glass from a drop. Maybe I'm lucky. (I'm not lucky in any other way I know!)

 

[jmgregory1]

How many AirPods hinges have failed these days? That's a $130 product compared to what is likely an $1,800+ foldable iPhone.

Phone manufacturers didn't use glass because Corning didn't offer Gorilla Glass until 2007. We're at the point where Corning is about to commercialize bendable glass. I think it's far too early to predict a failure before we've seen everything available.

The hinge on the AirPods case does get used but a fraction of times a phone would opened and closed.

It doesn’t matter if Corning makes a foldable glass, because it’s not going to fold like a piece of paper. It will be super thin and prone to damage because of its thinness. Glass is a solid material that is inherently rigid. You can reduce the brittleness of glass to a point, but then the trade off will be weaknesses in other aspects.

Physics just can’t be overcome in this case - you can’t have a hard and rigid glass screen that also can be bent over on itself, which is the opposite of being rigid.

 

[jmgregory1]

Ok Captain Negatron. My 2015 MBP has a hinge, and it's solid as a rock, and I've used it pretty much every single day for 6 years. My old flip phone from back in the days you're talking about was a Siemens, it was solid as a rock, and I used it for several years, it was one of the best and most durable phones I've ever owned. I'm a bit sad that Siemens stopped making phones.

Today, people check their smartphones an average of ~100 times a day. Do you open and close your MBP 100 times a day, and keep it in your front pocket?

I’m not being negative, just realistic.

And again, back in the day when you had a flip feature phone, I can guarantee that you were not opening and closing it 100 times a day. What made phones like the Razr die due to hinge failure is that is when people started texting more, so they were opening and closing them far more times a day, but still just a fraction of the time that smartphones today are getting used.

Ask any mechanical engineer about mechanical things like hinges and you’ll hear exactly this. Samsung did all this testing on a jig that opened and closed the folding devices hundreds of thousands of times, but not including dust, lint, sand, not to mention compression stresses that the real world would put on any device makes those tests almost pointless, unless you keep your device in a lab setting 24 hours a day.

 

[Art Mark]

Disingenuous post.

Those are early models that, yes, did have issues but have been resolved. Did Samsung rush the product? Yes. Did they fix it? Yes. Just like Apple messed up and fixed the butterfly keyboard issue.

Furthermore; is no one interested? Who are YOU to make that call? If YOU aren't interested... GREAT! Don't buy it. Go buy something else. Phone manufacturers making all sorts of phones for consumers that fit their use case is a GREAT thing. Did you know Apple makes more than one kind of iPhone? Pretty neat, huh?

Not sure what the market is or will be. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean anyone wants it. It’s possible it’ll prove handy. It’s also possible it proves to be a gimmick driven by a subpar manufacturer looking for anything that sets it apart from its history of early landfill electronics. Time will tell.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

How many AirPods hinges have failed these days? That's a $130 product compared to what is likely an $1,800+ foldable iPhone.

OK but two big differences here.
1. AirPods are something you open a couple times a day, pull them in and out, close it, and don’t open it again until you’re ready to put them away. On average you’ll probably only open and close your AirPods case two, three, maybe four times a day. With a phone, you unlock your phone hundreds of times a day, depending on the person obviously. Those same people would have to open and close their folding phones hundreds of times a day, especially if we’re going with the flip design. And a phone is a lot heavier than the AirPods tiny little plastic lid, it’s a lot more strain on the Hinge to be forced open and closed and opened and closed and opened and closed hundreds of times a day.
2: The AirPods hinge already isn’t perfect. My third gen AirPods already has a wobbly hinge, and that’s just with the tiny little lid. And most of the time it’s just in my pocket, it doesn’t really get dropped or anything like that. A phone is exactly the opposite, it’s always in my hand, being thrown around, in and out of my pocket, it probably gets dropped now and then on accident, at all times it has the possibility of being roughly handled, just based on day-to-day usage, which is a lot worse on something with a moving part on its outside.

 

[KPOM]

A part of me thinks that Samsung’s main audience for its foldable products is Apple itself. Apple would undoubtedly source most of the foldable screens from Samsung. The Galaxy line is lower volume than the flagship iPhone line and Samsung can experiment in a way Apple can’t. The 2019 fold devices were awful, but it was a sign the technology was “almost there.” The new designs work but the remaining question is scale. Apple needs both refined and scalable technology for the iPhone.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Because it’s something genuinely useful that many power users will appreciate. I want something that runs iPad is and fits my pocket and can take calls. I don’t care if that’s a rolling or folding screen. The screen and folding/sliding mechanisms still need a lot of work from current iterations, but eventually it will be ready.

What exactly does iPadOS in your pocket give you that iOS doesn’t?
Apple Pencil support? Because you won’t get that with a folding phone, the Second the pencil touches the folding screen and gets snagged just right in the crease, your iPad in pocket dream is destroyed and your thousands of dollars are down the drain

 

[KPOM]

Better to wait and do things right with updated technology, than to beta test the technology like Samsung.
I'm not a fan of foldable devices, but I'm sure 2024 technology will be much better than what we had this year.

See my message above. Sometimes I think Samsung is basically Apple’s beta tester since they make a lot of their profits selling components to Apple. Their experimental devices are as much about convincing Apple to keep them as a supplier as they are about winning market share for finished products.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Ok Captain Negatron. My 2015 MBP has a hinge, and it's solid as a rock, and I've used it pretty much every single day for 6 years. My old flip phone from back in the days you're talking about was a Siemens, it was solid as a rock, and I used it for several years, it was one of the best and most durable phones I've ever owned. I'm a bit sad that Siemens stopped making phones.

OK but not only does your MacBook not have a folding screen, The main failure points in the folding phone department, but it also isn’t being pulled in and out of your pocket constantly, it isn’t being folded and unfolded as much as a phone would be for the majority of users, and it should be noted that laptops have had problems with their hinges before, including apples.
The first generation aluminum power book G4 laptops had a problem where they wouldn’t close all the way, and the 2016 MacBook Pro‘s had the problems with the flex cable being detached after the computer got opened and closed so many times.
And again, this is just a hinge that connects the display to the keyboard and trackpad base, not an actual folding touchscreen, which is an entirely different beast.

 

[SSDGUY]

2030 or later would be fine with me.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

What exactly does iPadOS in your pocket give you that iOS doesn’t?
Apple Pencil support? Because you won’t get that with a folding phone, the Second the pencil touches the folding screen and gets snagged just right in the crease, your iPad in pocket dream is destroyed and your thousands of dollars are down the drain

I want iPad apps, split-screen multitasking, slide over windows, app expose, and support for multiple instances of the same app. I don’t much need Pencil support.

 

[rp2011]

Who is clamoring for these? No one. Even if the material physics that scream this is a terrible idea didn’t exist, it’s a step backwards to the early days of Android where they threw spaghetti at a wall.

 

[indychris]

George Jetson is disappointed yet once again...

The great thing about rumors sites is that we can keep talking about the non-existent iPhone Origami Pro year after year and perpetually discuss how it's been 'delayed'.